


Wolf in the House

by barton_lover



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anal Sex, Knotting, M/M, Miscarriage, Non-Canonical Character Death, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2020-02-15
Packaged: 2020-09-29 19:56:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 25
Words: 81,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20441624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/barton_lover/pseuds/barton_lover
Summary: Given everything that he has seen lately; gods, aliens, fucking Terminator like robots and more, Clint honestly shouldn't be surprised to stare at the large, three legged, white wolf with a silver metal human arm that had a red star on the shoulder dangling from its mouth.  He really shouldn’t be surprised.  In fact, Steve had called him about a month or two back saying that he and Sam had found Bucky, the supposedly dead best friend then turned ghost assassin Winter Soldier.  Course that led to that huge fucking war.  Now under house arrest, Clint tried to go to a normal life.  Apparently normal was not going to stay with him.





	1. Hey There

CHAPTER 1 - Hey There

Given everything that he has seen lately; gods, aliens, fucking Terminator like robots and more, Clint honestly shouldn't be surprised to stare at the large, three legged, white wolf with a silver metal human arm that had a red star on the shoulder dangling from its mouth. He really shouldn’t be surprised. In fact, Steve had called him about a month or two back saying that he and Sam had found Bucky, the supposedly dead best friend then turned ghost assassin Winter Soldier. Course that led to that huge fucking war. Now under house arrest, Clint tried to go to a normal life. Apparently normal was not going to stay with him.

Suddenly the wolf whined and dropped the arm to the ground. Clint glanced at it for a moment before turning his attention back on the wolf. From his quick meeting with Bucky, Clint could easily tell the arm was the soldier’s. Did that mean the wolf killed Bucky and claimed the arm as a prize? But then why was it here? What did it want with Clint? Then the wolf started spasming, almost like it was having a seizure but as it went, bones cracked, fur fell off in clumps, paws slowly turned into hand and feet and most importantly of all, that large dangerous muzzle disappeared into Bucky's exhausted face.

"Clint," Bucky whimpered, falling naked onto the ground near his arm. Clint swallowed hard before slowly taking the steps down his porch stairs. He wasn't allowed a certain distance from the front of the house and as a beeping noise ripped through the tense moment, Clint realized Bucky laid just beyond that line.

"Aww, rules, no," Clint whined, glancing at the offending machine strapped to his right ankle. Bucky's eyes flicked to it before focusing on the archer. He tried to shuffle forward but only winced and nearly cried out as his abused body protested the movement. Clint winced in sympathy. He had been injured many times with someone standing a small distance away but it hurt too much to move that distance. Clint shifted his weight back and forth, unsure what to do. "Fuck it."

The beeping became progressively louder as Clint rushed to help the injured man. He only had ten more seconds. He used that to lift Bucky up off the ground and ungracefully toss the injured man to the exact beeping area of his allotted distance. A quick kick sent the arm there as well. Bucky's scream of pain was quickly replaced buy Clint's as electricity shot through his system from the black device. Bucky looked up at the archer stunned as Clint fell, thankfully falling toward the house. He looked near unconscious. Worried Bucky shifted toward the archer. Clint groaned seconds after.

"Clint?" Bucky asked, his voice sounding both worried and pained. Clint twisted his body to look back at the other man. He let out a pained smile. Totally worth it.

"Give me two more seconds then I'll be back. If I wait any longer, try and drag me back a bit more," the archer mumbled, his voice slurring a bit like he was drugged or something. Bucky counted five seconds before the beeping returned along with the sounds of something vibrating. Clint whimpered and pulled his legs closer to himself. Feeling more human and the serum having fixed most of the injuries to nearly healed, Bucky reached forward and grabbed the archer's shirt before tugging the man toward him. A few tugs later, the beeping stopped. "Thanks man."

"What the hell was that?" Bucky wondered. Clint snorted having turned his head to glance over at Bucky. The soldier was now sitting on the ground. He looked much more refreshed and ready. Clint was instantly jealous.

"What the hell is up with you?" The archer countered. Bucky winced as Clint suddenly coughed. He really hated getting electrocuted. Really messed with his body. "Part of my house arrest. Can't get too far from the house without getting shocked and given a relaxant. If I can't get back in range, another shock hits stronger and a drug… M… zolam… or something. Supposed to make me still and sleepy till they come pick up my body."

"Jesus fuck Barton! You agreed to let the government put that on you?" Bucky cried, shocked. Clint shrugged, shifting himself to a more comfortable position as his body righted itself. Bucky noted that Clint’s eyes never left his face. No... More specifically, never left his lips. It made the soldier frown.

"Either this or Fridge solitary for the rest of my life. Sam and the others might have been easy for you and Steve to get out but I would have been deeper. Likely side by side with some of those fuckers the Avengers took down a while back," Clint admitted. He looked Bucky in the eyes before heading back to the man’s lips. "But you're avoiding my question. What the hell is with the wolf thing?"

"Last mission. Thought it was a science experiment gone wrong. Thing bite me then kinda… died. Two nights later my skin started itching and my body hurt. Next morning I woke naked in my room, the whole place trashed like I had a bad fight, but no memory of it. Then I saw the fur and…. I just knew. I… I couldn't be with Stevie," Bucky explained, glancing to the ground after he spoke. Clint frowned hoping that he hadn’t missed another comment.

"So you came here? To me and my family?" Clint muttered. Bucky looked up, suddenly pale. Clint sighed at that. "S' fine. Not here anyway. Barney… my brother, moved them out. Didn't want his kids seeing their uncle chained."

"Jesus," Bucky softly said. Clint shrugged.

"Is what it is," the archer replied, getting to his feet. Bucky followed suit. Grabbing his arm and without even thinking about it, reattaching it to the part still jutting out of his naked shoulder. With a clink and a hiss, it connected. Bucky flexed the fingers, making sure his run hadn't destroyed any of the parts. Clint solemnly watched before shaking his head and headed toward his house.

"I didn't mean to come here specifically…" Bucky called, after Clint passed him. Slowly the solder turned to look at the archer, who was only a few steps away but hadn't turned back around. "Just knew that the others were in danger with me around. Wanted to get to woods, away from people."

"What exactly drew you here? You’ve never been here before," Clint wondered, turning to face the soldier. Bucky shrugged before sighing but didn’t look away from Clint.

"A scent. Something smelt… well good. And I was tired. Wanted to rest," Bucky admitted. Clint nodded before walking again. He made it to the steps before looking back to Bucky.

"Well, I got four other bedrooms and some spare clothes. Was about to make some pizza," Clint invited. Bucky paused a second before a small smile appeared on his face.

"Sure. Just… until I can go again," he agreed. Clint nodded, somehow knowing that Bucky wasn't going to leave without him.

\--------------

After a shower, new clothes and the alluring scent of pizza, Bucky found himself wondering what he was doing. Clint… Clint was human. He wouldn't be able to stand against the new form coursing through him. Steve had a better chance of fighting the wolf off. Hell, Wanda could have used her powers to hold him in place till the wolf ran out of steam and Bucky turned back. But something had told him to run. Something convinced him that the others would be safer with him gone. That same something was saying that staying with Clint was fine.

"Fuck Barnes… What are you doing?" Bucky cussed to himself, looking down the hall to the stairs that would bring him to the kitchen. He shook his head as a waft of pizza smell came back up to him. This time he caught the alluring scent of meat. Pepperoni, sausage, ham, beef, pork… God everything. Without him thinking about it, his body moved. He became aware of himself once he entered the kitchen and suddenly got a whiff of earth, bird, and safe. Opening his eyes, Bucky noticed Clint standing awkwardly in front of the sink.

"Wasn't sure what type of pizza you wanted," Clint nervously told him. Bucky frowned before glancing to the kitchen table. It was overloaded with pepperoni pizza, meat lovers pizza, a sausage pizza, a ham pizza and randomly a pork roast. He raised an eyebrow at that. "Neighbor gave it to the security guards at the end of the drive. They couldn't take it, so one of them brought it to me. I… I didn't like it."

For some reason that made Bucky chuckle. He had no idea why, but it did. In his head he could picture this little old lady trying to convince a bunch of muscle men to take a freshly baked pork roast. And everyone knows that little old ladies that bake for someone does not take no for an answer. Then the image changed to the awkward way the guards had to explain that situation to Clint and the archer curiously taking the food.

"Only you," Bucky whispered and shook his head. Clint said nothing in response but he was watching Bucky intently. Bucky frowned and Clint's nervous scent grew stronger. It was hard to focus on that. Even after a week of being a wolf, he still wasn’t used to smelling different emotions on people. Most times he didn’t even think about it.

"Uh, if you said something a minute ago, I… uh, didn't catch it. Ya gotta look at me when you talk," the archer explained as if that answered Bucky's unasked question. Paying more attention to him, Bucky noted that Clint's tone was off. He was slurring a bit and his voice was almost too loud. In fact, rethinking over the earlier encounter, Clint had been like that but Bucky thought it was the shock. Suddenly it hit Bucky like a freight train.

"Your aids," Bucky intoned. Clint gave a weak smile.

"Government took away Stark's aids as they were also my comms. He isn't 'legally' allowed to build me new ones as aids can be purchased elsewhere. They forget that electricity and cheap ass aids don't work well together,” Clint responded. Bucky winced. It was his fault that the aids didn’t work anymore. Clint shouldn’t have been outside and certainly shouldn’t have been that far. This was even more reason that Bucky should not have come. It was a very stupid idea.

“Do you have replacements?” Bucky asked, praying that the archer would at least have one set. Clint would need his hearing as a first line of defense. Thankfully, Clint nodded.

“Tony somehow sent a collection of parts. SHIELD made me learn how to fix them. But I ask for new ones each time I shock myself cause I don’t want the guards to know. Which speaking of the guards, they’ll be here in like ten minutes. I stalled them a bit by saying it was an accident and a friend is visiting but they still need to check it out,” Clint quickly mentioned as if he was talking about the weather. Bucky raised an eyebrow. Clint smiled before glancing at the metal arm. He grimaced. “Also, lose the arm.”

“What?”

“I told the guards that my friend is an old circus buddy and that he’s missing his left arm and kinda sorta looks like that fugitive with the metal arm. Oh, and your name is now Felix,” Clint informed before pushing off the counter.

“Felix? Wait, the guards?” Bucky cried, going pale as he did. Clint nodded with a frown. Then he shrugged.

“My ankle device went off. They need to come check on why. Technically, they should have already been here but I called them and explained. Doesn’t mean that can skip over a check though. Course, I could be wrong. With no aids, I couldn’t hear them and apparently video chat is too ‘dangerous’ for me to use,” Clint explained. Bucky shuddered at the thought of these guards coming. Glancing to his arm, he grimaced. He kind of didn’t want to lose it. But he understood Clint’s point. It was rather noticeable. Gently, he disconnected it. Smiling in a sympathetic way, Clint moved over and took the arm from the soldier. “Eat, I’ll go hide this in a safe place.”

Bucky glanced back at the food on the table as Clint headed off into the house. Being a version of a super soldier, he tended to eat more than a normal person. But now, adding the wolf version of himself, he found he needed even more food. At this point, he likely could compete against Thor in an eating contest and win. Pausing for only a moment, Bucky tried to remember to save some of the food for Clint. He failed.

“Wow, someone was hungry,” Clint commented with a small laugh. Bucky turned red, turning back to face the archer. Seeing the soldier’s face, Clint waved a hand in dismissal about it. “Don’t worry about it. I ate a sandwich while cooking. Figured you might be super hungry. Bruce always said turning into Hulk took a lot of calories and he needed to eat more to cover it. Figured the wolf would be the same way.”

“I’m sorry,” Bucky mumbled, looking down to the floor as he did so. Clint shook his head, ready to tell the soldier that he was fine but the doorbell ran. The archer held up a finger in a ‘one second’ and headed down the hall toward the door. Bucky slowly stood, a frown on his face. How did Clint hear that if he didn’t have aids? He glanced over at the clock on the stove. Apparently he ate all that food in just under 8 minutes. Clint had been gone that whole time. He must have gotten a spare pair of aids.

With that thought, Bucky looked back at the evidence he had left behind of his abnormally large meal. He couldn’t help but wince. This could be used as evidence of him being who he is. Quickly, Bucky shuffled things around to look like the meal was much smaller. He finished just as Clint returned with two men. One man looked like he was in his late twenties. The other looked maybe early forties.

“Felix, these are the guards I was telling you about. Simon, Joey, meet Felix,” Clint introduced, pointing to the older man as he said Simon and the younger when he said Joey. Bucky nodded a greeting and wasn’t all that surprised to see both men looking him over closely. Joey snapped out of it first and smiled. Simon on the other hand...

“You didn’t come up the drive,” Simon all but growled at the soldier. Bucky winced. Indeed he hadn’t. The wolf had smelt the guards and stayed downwind of them as he ran through the woods to get to Clint.

“Well, with that fugitive on the loose, kinda got a little sick of being arrested. Sucks even more that I’m missing the same arm as him,” Bucky retorted with a little bit of heat behind it. Joey’s smile turned to a smirk. Clint couldn’t help but snort in surprise and a small bit of laughter. He had only given Bucky like eleven minutes to get his cover in place, yet Bucky just fell into it.

“I’d imagine that’d be tough,” Joey sympathized. Bucky looked the guard over. Joey had a very similar look to that guy that shrank, then suddenly got really big. The guard chuckled. “Haven’t been arrested yet.”

“That’s cause Scott got caught,” Clint snipped, giving Bucky a secretive look. Bucky smiled as Joey chuckled. Simon’s eyes narrowed more at the jokes.

“Guess that’s true,” the guard snorted.

“You wouldn’t mind submitting to a quick print check then, would you?” Simon snarled as if Bucky had insulted his mother. Both Bucky and Clint tensed at that. Joey turned to his partner with an angry look.

“Dude,” the archer complained. Simon’s gaze flicked over to Clint.

“I make it a habit to not trust criminals,” the guard hissed. Clint winced as Joey gave Simon a back handed smack. Simon glance at him.

“The Avengers save my little girl and sister in New York. They ain’t villains,” Joey snapped. Simon shrugged, not giving a crap about that.

“My brother, his wife and their three kids; 10, 4, and six months, died in Sokovia. They were getting their soon to be adopted 12 year old,” Simon retorted. The others paled. That was a lot of people killed. Clint looked down at the ground, adding Simon’s family to his ledger.

“I’m sorry. We tried to evacuate everyone before we lifted into the air. Then the Helicarrier came and... We tried,” Clint mumbled, guilt covering his voice. Bucky winced. While he hadn’t been part of all that mess, he knew enough of what happened that that event had been the start of the Avenger’s downfall. Lagos was next and that fake Winter Soldier sealed the deal.

“You failed. Big time,” Simon accused. Clint again winced before turning away from the guard and entering further into the kitchen. Bucky could tell that the archer had already blamed himself for all those deaths but what everyone seemed to miss was how many people had also been saved. Ignoring the archer now, Simon looked back at Bucky. “Finger prints?”

“You can just look up my history. Felix Black, age 25. Born in Queens. Parents died at age two and I lived with my aunt Sarah in Brooklyn till we went on vacation in Ohio and I left her to join Carson’s Carnival of Traveling Wonders,” Bucky quickly listed, his voice sharp and annoyed. Simon looked impressed but clearly unmoved on his position. Clint subtly glanced at Bucky with an eyebrow raised. He hadn’t known that Bucky knew the circus name. Steve must have talked about the archer a lot.

“Good enough for ya,” Joey muttered, his voice now turning annoyed. Simon snorted.

“Winter Soldier is a spy as well as an assassin. Learning a new backstory is easy for him,” Simon replied as if it was obvious. Joey tossed his hands into the air in defeat.

“You know what. This isn’t our job. Our job is to make sure Hawkeye doesn’t leave his government designated area, not investigate his visitors,” Joey cried. Simon shook his head at the other man.

“If Winter Soldier is here, the others may be near by as well. They could break Hawkeye out of here like they did to that jail a while ago. We are here to make sure Hawkeye can’t escape. If this man is Winter Soldier, we aren’t doing our job,” Simon pointed out. Bucky rolled his eyes. While the man did have a good point, there was one thing missing from this point.

“If I was the winter traitor, I’d have already snapped off that anklet and ran with him before you even got up the drive. And like those who broke from that jail, we’d vanish without a trace. But, I ain’t him. I’m just Felix, a one armed ex-circus trapeze artist,” Bucky snipped, his mind quickly flashing to what was usually in a circus. He had only attended one with Steve and he remembered the people swinging around, high in the tent; jumping, flipping, spinning, and so much more. It was something he couldn’t help but want to learn. Simon smirked at that statement though as Clint tensed.

“Hey Hawkguy. Don’t you have a trapeze set up in your barn?” the older guard asked, grinning as if he was the Cheshire cat. Clint nodded. “Wanna show us you skills?”

“Simon,” Joey hissed, grabbing the other guard’s arm. “This is going to far. It’s clear that he isn’t the Winter Soldier. Drop it.”

“Prints would take forever and he’s right. They could be gone by then. Trapeze work is hard. Especially for a one armed soldier,” Simon said, positioning himself into a more dominant pose. The wolf inside Bucky began snarling. This human wasn’t an alpha. And this was his territory. Pushing the wolf down was significantly harder than before but once he did, Bucky glanced over to Clint.

“Can you make it there?” he asked, not knowing the limits of Clint’s area. Clint nodded. His barn had his whole set up meant for training. Thankfully the government was fine with him keeping up with his practicing and skills which was strange. But then again, they could be thinking he’d sign the Accords sooner or later. Bucky looked back to the guards. “Let’s go.”

\-----------------  
Hello all... This is my first story here on Archive of Our Own... Most of my works are on FanFiction.net.... I have two profiles there. My first profile is Barton_Lover, the second is of course Barton_Lover2. There is an elongated series running between the two accounts so if you like this, maybe go check them out.

Something I tend to do is write little notes about how my life is going... I tend to talk about my husband, my son Darius, and recently my roommates Mike, Janice and their son Jason. Darius is 3 years old and... Going through a lot lately.... Jason is only 4 months old. More information is of course added on my other accounts if you want to back track to there.

I hope you all enjoy this story and I can't wait to post even more!


	2. Surprise

CHAPTER 2 - Surprise

Clint did indeed have a trapeze set up in his barn. In fact, judging from the outside of the barn, it would have had three floors but there was no second floor. Instead there were two platforms jutting out from the wall below some trap doors on the next floor. One swing hung still on the far side of the barn. The other was twisted up to a pole next to the platform on the left. The one downside of all this. There was clearly no sign of a net nor a way to set one up. When Joey noticed this, he glance over at Clint. Clint shrugged. He’d been doing trapeze work on the side. Helped when he jumped from building to building. Sometimes he’d also shoot while between the swings. It was actually surprising how often his practice on this set up helped in battles.

Bucky paused, looking over the whole set up. It was different then the set up he worked with when under Hydra’s control. But then again, he hadn’t expected it to look similar. They only wanted him to ‘parkour’ on a few missions. But sometimes when he was unfrozen for longer then they thought, he’d get free reign to train in the area they set up.

“Well?” Simon evilly prompted as if Bucky was gonna balk at the challenge. Bucky glanced at him quickly before moving to the rope ladder that led toward the platform on the left.

“There’s a button up top that gets the other side to swing,” Clint called out to the soldier, knowing that swinging toward a still bar looked much easier than a moving one to the untrained eye. Bucky nodded as he continued to work his way up. For half a second after saying that, Clint wondered if Bucky could even do trapeze. But then Bucky made it to the top.

Without second guessing himself, Bucky pressed the button to move the swing on the far side of the barn. Up here, the space looked much larger than it had below. It also looked a lot higher. Suddenly, Bucky wasn’t so confident in his limited training on this. Gulping, Bucky grabbed the trapped swing and shifted it toward the center. He adjusted his hand. Training under Hydra, he had used one hand to jump across poles, moving objects and learned to pull himself up but he’d never done this. Could he do this?

“Simon,” Joey warned, suddenly very nervous that Bucky was going to fall. It’s one thing to see someone with two hands do these stunts with no net, but someone with one hand was more worrisome. Simon didn’t reply or even shift his gaze away from the man above them. He was still waiting for Bucky to back down and admit who he was.

Taking a deep breath, Bucky jumped off the platform. The three below all gasped. Simon started to go pale as Joey began to look away but Clint just stood there biting his lip. Clint watched as, at first, the swing began to twist toward the side. It meant Bucky wasn’t distributing his weight correctly. Bucky slowly shifted his hand over and the swing began to level out. He did a few more practice swings, making sure he was lined up right and to give the other swing time to get to it’s full zenith. Then before anyone on the ground was prepared for, Bucky let go.

“Holy shit,” Clint exhaled once Bucky caught the other swing. Then on it’s upswing, Bucky again released, twisting in the air to catch it just before it got out of reach. He swung with this side once more before letting go, doing a backflip and catching the first swing.

“Okay! I give, before you kill yourself,” Simon called, his voice more impressed and embarrassed than anything. Bucky easily jumped off the swing and landed on the platform after that. He grabbed the stick meant to ensnare the swing and pulled it in before hitting the button for the other side. Clint met the soldier at the bottom of the ladder.

“Felix man, I told you losing that arm wouldn’t hurt your show! You should have stayed,” Clint said, patting Bucky on the back. Bucky grinned hearing the hidden message underneath. Clint was impressed and surprised to see what the soldier could do. But as another sniper, Bucky knew that Clint could likely do the same thing. Course, he wouldn’t be missing the second arm in case his misjudged.

“Took far to long to learn. Carson would have dropped me like a sack of potatoes long before then,” Bucky replied, shrugging his shoulders. Clint laughed but Bucky could see that the archer’s face pinched and his laugh sounded far faker than before. Bucky could also smell the guilt and sadness off of Clint. He couldn’t help but let his smile partly shift down.

“Look, man. I’m sorry. But I had to check,” Simon told Bucky once he and Clint were close. Joey rolled his eyes having already decided Bucky wasn’t... Well, Bucky.

“Honestly, I get it. I really do. Just gets really annoying,” Bucky retorted, keeping his voice light and happy. Simon nodded before looking to Clint.

“Have all visitors come down the drive. We can’t have this happen again,” Simon informed Clint. Clint shrugged. He hadn’t known Bucky was going to come. In fact, outside of the Avengers, he didn’t really have any friends.

“Give me another way to communicate with you guys and I can give a heads up. By the way, need a new hearing aids. These are the last ones I got,” Clint mentioned. Joey nodded.

“I’ll put them in tomorrow’s grocery delivery. Need anything else?” Joey asked, turning to Bucky this time. Clint bristled slightly at that.

“Uh... I guess some ground beef... Some chicken breasts,” Bucky muttered, unsure what else to list. Clint snorted, noting it was all meat foods. Some of which he had in the fridge.

“We’ll wait till next delivery so we can narrow it down a bit,” Clint joked, knowing what he had in stock and what was coming. Joey raised an eyebrow at that. Typically, Clint ordered frozen meals. Actually, mostly frozen pizza.

“How long you staying?” Simon inquired, looking at Bucky with a slightly friendlier gaze. Again, Clint bristled.

“My contract did not deny visitors or someone moving in with me,” Clint snapped, feeling majorly defensive. Bucky’s wolf growled, wanting to help defend Clint. Simon raised his hands in defense, knowing he was walking a very thin line.

“No skin off my teeth. Just have to report it so the others guards know someone’s here and been verified,” Simon smoothed. Bucky pressed a hand on Clint’s shoulder to try and relax the archer. Surprisingly it did.

“Honestly, haven’t thought about how long. Maybe a week or two but could be longer,” Bucky answered. Simon nodded, pleased with at least a little bit of information.

“Okay. Let us know if that changes,” Simon called before turning away. Joey nodded a good-bye to the two and followed Simon out the barn and toward the drive. Once they were out of range, Clint punched Bucky in the side.

“What the fuck! Where did you learn that?” Clint hissed. Bucky chuckled, dancing away from Clint. His wolf relaxed, ready to play and Bucky stilled slightly.

“Amazing how often I’d have to dangle from something one handed before jumping to another surface. Guessing you do too, otherwise this wouldn’t be set up,” Bucky retorted, waving his hand over the set up above them. Clint snorted.

“No. The Grayson twins taught me. I like the feeling of free falling,” Clint laughed, his voice slightly playful. Bucky snorted this time.

“Must be why you jump off so many buildings,” Bucky laughed out before heading toward the house. Clint took a moment to follow before the line sunk in.

“Hey! Not cool!”

\------------

Thankfully, by the time the duo got back to the house, the sun was setting. Bucky paused on the porch, turning to watch the sun set. He never really had to chance to see it. Typically he was in a big city or on a mission or stuck in a thick wood. Clint paused beside him, glancing back to see what made the soldier pause.

“Wow, hadn’t realized how late it had gotten,” Clint noted. Bucky turned to look at him before looking back at the sun.

“I’m-”

“Don’t say sorry. I’ve been trapped in this house for nearly two months with nothing but Dog Cops and every other day with visits from guards who either can’t stand me or pretty much worship what I did. You and your new issue is the best thing that happened to me. Well... Other than you being furry,” Clint interrupted. Bucky smirked.

“I was gonna say, I’m beat.” Clint barked out a laugh at that, shaking his head. Bucky smirked. “Didn’t expect that?”

“Nah man. It’s fine. Come on, I’ll show you the... Uh...” Clint started. Again, the archer’s smell turned guilt but this time also sad. Then it turned anxious. Bucky frowned.

“What?”

“Well... I know I said that there are four other bedrooms but... This house is my brother’s and his family. They’re only really gone till this Accords deal sorts it’s self out. So, all their bedrooms are still made up and... I’m in the guest room,” Clint explained. Bucky glanced to the living room. Clint followed the gaze. “No. That couch sucks. Fuck it. Take my room. I’ll sleep in the master. After I change the sheets... On both beds.”

It didn’t take long for Clint to strip both beds, remake the guest bed and as the archer waved Bucky into that room, the soldier paused to look everything over. The wolf gave off a warmed and pleased feeling as it noted Clint’s scent was on everything in the room. Especially the scent that Clint was trying to wash out of the sheets. The bed was an average queen size bed and nightstands on either side, both of which had small lamps on them. On the far nightstand was a clock. Another look over the room, Bucky almost thought the room could be from a four star hotel or something. It wasn’t personalized at all.

“Hey, I’m just gonna grab some clothes. Feel free to wear any of my shit. Doubt you’d fit into Barney’s stuff,” Clint called, slipping past Bucky to get to the bureau and pulled out the top two drawers. One drawer had shirts and socks, mostly black and purple in color and certainly well used. The other had pants, shorts and underwear. Bucky shivered as he realized he might have to wear some of Clint’s underwear. His wolf gave a pleased hum.

“How often do you stay here?” Bucky asked. Clint stilled at that before rapidly going to get more clothes. “Weren’t you retired?”

“I was retired...”

“Then Steve called,” Bucky finished with a wince. It was his fault. He already had felt guilty for everyone else, never mind this situation. His eyes flickered down to Clint’s ankle. The wolf snarled inside him.

“Then Steve called,” Clint confirmed. He then sighed. “When I worked for... Fury. I didn’t get to come here often. Always busy with this mission, that mission. Laura is a trained physical therapist. A lot of my recoveries happened here. Weeks at a time but so spaced out that the room was often used by others.”

“You don’t have another place?”

“Nah. Steve and Nat destroyed that. Had to sell everything. Or well... Most of them. Some were ransacked before I got there. My apartment in Bed-Sty was the only place not on SHIELD radar. Not even listed under my name. I couldn’t allow those civilians to get hurt,” Clint mumbled. “Accords said I couldn’t be in New York. So, I called Barney. He offered the house but they left before I even arrived. Just a note saying they’d return when I wasn’t under house arrest.”

“I’m-” Bucky once again started but paused when Clint’s gaze snapped to him with an angry look. Bucky gave a small smirk. “Sorry.”

“For what? Stopping a maniac from activating four or more, dangerous than you, super soldiers? For getting Wanda out of her own version of house arrest, hidden as a safe haven? No. We all made our choices. Now, we all have to live with them. You apologizing for it belittles our help and our choice,” Clint snapped. The wolf whimpered, unsure how he upset Clint. Bucky sighed. He couldn’t argue that. Apparently Steve surrounded himself with a lot of like minded people. Clint shifted back out into the hallway, making Bucky turn to look at him. The movement made the archer pause. “Rest. We’ll make plans on what to do in the morning.”

\------------

Halfway through the night, Clint’s eyes jerked open. He stayed completely still as he tried to figure out what happened. Something was off. Without moving, he tried to analyze everything. His body was fine. No pain, no feeling of being drugged. He had no memory of being attacked. But he could tell that he wasn’t in his bedroom but things seemed familiar. Then he remembered that Bucky had arrived. Slowly he sat up, grabbing his aids in case he needed to hear. The door was cracked open much further than he had last left it. Clint couldn’t help but frown.

“Bucky?” Clint called, knowing he was the only one else in the house. His reply was a whine on the other side of the bed. Clint spun around to see a wolf looking up over the edge. For half a second Clint thought he was about to die but then wolf-Bucky gave a whimpering whine again and nudged the blanket. Clint frowned. “You... Wanna join me?”

Not even half a second later, Clint was covered by a warm furry body. Clint gasped, pushing wolf-Bucky most of way off his body. Wolf-Bucky whined at it but finally shifted so he was flush against Clint’s side. Clint huffed at him.

“Okay, get comfy,” Clint snipped before removing his aids and laying back down. At first he laid so his back was to wolf-Bucky but after trying to relax for half and hour or more, Clint finally spun to face wolf-Bucky. Two minutes later, Clint was asleep.

\----------

Bucky sighed. He was comfy, warm, safe and wrapped in someone’s arms. His eyes snapped open and very quickly he noticed he was a wolf. Panic flushed through his system. What happened? Where was he? Did he kill someone? Or hurt someone? The panic made Bucky try and get up to go hide.

“Mmm. S’early,” a voice mumbled beside him. Bucky turned to look. Clint was wrapped around him as if he was a large stuffed animal. Surprised, Bucky reared up and away. The sudden movement tossed Clint off the other side of the bed with a shocked ‘hey’ while Bucky got his back paws wrapped in the sheets. The more he struggled, the tighter they got. Rationally, Bucky knew he should calm down and just slip out or even change forms. But the wolf was in control and unused to sheets and being trapped like this. Then a heavy weight landed on Bucky’s back, pushing him down onto the bed. The wolf trashed like an angry bronco but whatever it was was latched on nice and tight. “BUCKY!”

The wolf jerked at the shout and it was just enough for Bucky to drop himself to the bed. Carefully and painfully, Bucky pushed the wolf down. As he did, he noted Clint was muttering random things on his back. Once fully human, Bucky sagged in relief onto the bed. Clint tensed for a moment, ready for a sudden move before slowly releasing the soldier and rolling off.

“You good now?” Clint wondered. Bucky nodded, too shaken to look and see if Clint was wearing his aids. Clint sighed and got up off the bed. “Good. That’s good.”

“Sorry,” Bucky mumbled into the bed. Clint snorted.

“I’m assuming your apologizing. Aids ain’t good enough to catch mumbles. Either way, I invited you,” Clint replied as he got dressed. Bucky launched himself off the bed and toward the far corner of the room. Clint stilled at the movement, ready for an attack but not looking in Bucky’s direction.

“I could have killed you!”

“Yup. You could’ve. But you didn’t,” Clint mentioned. Bucky shuddered, his wolf pleased by Clint’s words. Clint nodded. “Now, I’m gonna go see if I have any bacon and saus... Yeah. You should get dressed.”

With that, Clint made a hasty retreat. Bucky frowned at the archer’s actions before he looked down. The wolf had ripped through the borrowed clothes. He was stark nude in Clint’s brother’s bedroom. That thought made Bucky flush as red as the red on Steve’s shield.

\-------------

Another chapter done! I'm glad to see so many kudos and my two lovely comments! It means a lot. Still working on writing the whole thing so I have no idea how many chapters I got left. I'll edit that when I finally finish.

So, Darius might have a little 'crush' on a girl at his daycare. For the longest time my husband and I kept hearing the names of two kids he played with all the time, but we never met them. So we weren't entirely sure they were real. But the other day we finally met them! And ends up the kids are siblings. Kinda cool! On Monday Darius gets to start up school at the Early Learning Center. Baby Jason is doing good. He's being a bit of a 'pain' for his parents but mostly just a fussy kiddo. Currently he is enjoying watching Power Rangers much to the enjoyment of his father and myself, lol. But things are going good.

Hope you all really enjoy this. I promise things will get more mature worthy later. Just setting things up still!


	3. Next Day Blues

CHAPTER 3 - Next Day Blues

Clint did indeed find bacon and sausage. He must have spent a small amount of time freaking out about his near death when in actuality Clint had spent most of that time trying to convince his mind that Bucky was not available for sex. Because Bucky had just walked in to see the archer was just starting to put the bacon down onto the pan. Slowly, the soldier puttered around the kitchen. Coffee was brewing and smelled different than what he had with Steve. It seemed stronger, heavier and certainly HEAVENLY!

Bucky glanced back at Clint. He really appreciated the way that Clint was sticking to mostly meats but, so far, Bucky truly wondered if he didn’t needed to change his diet. Only one way to test that. Opening cupboards, Bucky investigated the way Clint arranged everything. A few cupboards in, Bucky found a box of Frosted Flakes. He smiled at it as his stomach gave something like a purring motion at the sight. Bowls were one cupboard down and a spoon was in the drawer right below it. Happy, Bucky plopped down into one of the chairs. He was half tempted to get a glass of orange juice and some milk but Clint was right by the fridge. After a bite, Bucky learned that his preference for food was still normal.

“First round of bac- Hey!” Clint cried, turning to watch Bucky spook a large mouthful of dry flakes into his mouth. Bucky smirked around the food. Clint’s eyes flicked from the bowl to Bucky’s face before looking to the meat in a lost kind of way. “So... No meat?”

“Haven’d noticed a real need for just meat. Could have some bacon but that particular type of sausage doesn’t satisfy what I really want,” Bucky replied, his eyes glancing down to between Clint’s legs as he said sausage. He even added a quick wetting of his lips while staring. Clint turned beat red, understanding that Bucky didn’t want the sausage food but wanted what was down below. Slowly he offered the fully cooked bacon to Bucky. With a smirk, the soldier took all four slices sitting on the plate. Gulping, Clint turned back around to cook some bacon for himself. Seconds after Clint finished cooking his own food, there was a knock on the door. Bucky stiffened, too used to hiding from various amounts of people. Clint groaned, dropping his plate on the table before heading to the door.

“GRAY! My man!” Clint called loudly in greeting. Bucky got to his feet. Apparently it was someone who must have liked the Avengers. Panicked, Bucky looked to his arm before realizing, Clint had never given him his metal arm back. He couldn’t help but give a small sigh of relief.

“Hawk,” ‘Gray’ greeted in return. Bucky shifted to the hall. Gray was a middle age man. Maybe mid-thirties. His black hair was slicked back and his brown eyes focused quickly on Bucky. “You Felix?”

“Yeah,” Bucky said. Gray nodded in greeting as Clint grabbed some bags and headed to the kitchen.

“Didya get it! Didya get it!” Clint chanted, grabbing at the bags Gray held. Gray laughed as he brought the rest to the kitchen. Clint rapidly searched the bags and was apparently successful in his hunt, cause just as Bucky trailed in after them into the kitchen, Clint let out a cry. “YES!”

Victoriously, Clint pulled out a pack of Oreos. Gray smiled at his antics before beginning to unload some of the bags into apparently designated areas. Bucky snorted even as his eyes tracked Gray around the room. The wolf growled. Suddenly having an issue with someone else here and doing stuff in his territory.

“Oreos?” the soldier laughed, pushing the wolf back down. Clint suddenly became tense before hugging the package to his chest and nearly snarling at Bucky. The wolf bristled under Bucky’s skin but Bucky was able to squash it down again. In fact, Bucky had been noticing more and more that when it was Clint, or Clint was near, it was much easier to knock the wolf down. He’d have to check more on that later as he really hadn’t paid attention to much before and he really wasn’t half wolf for too long.

“Mine! No touchie!” Clint snarled. Bucky raised his hands in innocence. The wolf gave a light snarl but also backed down. Gray snorted, beginning to start putting items away.

“Mega Stuff Oreos are hard to get in the local store,” the guard tried to explain. Bucky frowned. That really shouldn’t make Clint act like this.

“And they taste better than coffee!” Clint praised, ripping the package open to get at the treats inside. Before the archer could even attempt to fully open it, Bucky snatched the whole thing out of Clint’s hands. Gray froze as Clint stilled. A darkness seemed to roll into the kitchen as only Clint’s eyes shifted to stare at Bucky. For some reason, the look nearly intimidating to Bucky, but he was determined.

“Breakfast first,” Bucky ordered, pointing to the very cooled down food that Clint had made. Gray and Clint looked over to it before looking back at Bucky. The soldier gave Clint a stern look, his wolf growling at the archer and his eyes flashed as if he was ready to turn. Clint winced, understanding that Bucky wasn’t going to back down.

“But-”

“Breakfast,” Bucky demanded, not backing down. Whining, Clint stared at the package in the soldier’s hands. Bucky’s wolf almost surged forward, taking over, at Clint’s pathetic whine and Bucky suddenly found lust surging through his body. Before Bucky could think more on it, Clint caved.

“Fine,” the archer moaned, sulking over to the table and starting to eat. Gray laughed before patting Bucky on the back. The motion making the wolf growl and nearly ready to attack.

“I like you,” the man declared. Clint stuck his tongue out at the man. Gray chuckled, far too used to Clint’s antics. Turning from the situation, he finished unloading the bags. Bucky focused on the man doing so. Apparently, Gray did this often as he easily moved about the kitchen putting things away in their proper place. Within the two minutes or so for Gray to put the items away, Clint had finished all but half of the scrambled eggs he had made.

“Gimmie, gimmie, gimmie,” Clint excitedly called like a littler toddler asking for a new toy. Bucky snorted at the archer before handing over the snack food. Gray smiled at the interaction, nodding his farewells to the duo as Clint finished opening the package and began eating the Oreos inside. The archer moaned at the taste, like he was having sex. Lust again flushed through Bucky’s system and if it wasn’t for a quick decision to run, Bucky likely would have jumped Clint then and there.

\----------

Bucky spent the rest of the day either avoiding Clint or attempting to leave. He knew he should leave, cause something was wrong with the wolf and Clint might not be able to stop the animal from attacking. Clint was in terrible danger. The archer would be better off without him. But, each and every attempt ended at the edge of the wood. No matter how hard he tried, Bucky could not pass the tree line. The wolf would surge forward, enough to take control, and stop Bucky from taking those last steps. Fearing that he’d change, Bucky always backed down. On the last attempt, Bucky snapped.

“Fine. I’ll stay,” he grumbled to the wolf before spinning to stalk toward the house. The wolf gave off a pleased feeling before the lust and need of being near Clint began to form. Bucky made it to the porch before pausing. Clint was in the living room, pacing back and forth, talking on his home phone.

“No, Steve. I haven’t seen him. Do you honestly think he’d come here? I have like half the government watching me! Hell, does he even know I’m here?” Clint’s voice trailed from the room. Bucky paused, not wanting Clint to see him. “Don’t come here. Please. I’m in enough trouble already... I didn’t say that. You can call me if you really need me, but finding your friend, again, is not the emergency I’m planning on helping with.”

Bucky grinned, he couldn’t help it. He had honestly thought Clint would give him up the second Steve called. Didn’t mean Steve would believe the archer, but Clint at least tried. The wolf inside him growled at Bucky’s thoughts of Steve coming but lusted and whined at Clint’s defense.

“No! No, don’t put- Hey, Tasha,” Clint cooed after extreme panic. Bucky tensed. Something in Clint’s tone made the wolf growl. Clint shouldn’t be ‘backing down’ to anyone but him. Bucky fought to stay away from another phone or even rushing to take the phone from Clint. “As I told St-... Nat, please. I’m guarded. They’ll... I don’t care about Wakandan tech. You’ll get... No! I don’t mean it like that! Nat, please... Shit.”

Bucky frowned, finally unable to stop himself from going in. Clint was now sitting on the couch, his head resting in his hands and the phone pressing into his temple. Bucky stilled. This was not what he expected to find. The wolf whined in his head, demanding Bucky go and rub himself against the archer until Clint gave him affection back. Before he could though, Clint moved.

“Fuck!” he shouted before throwing the phone across the room. Bucky winced as the phone shattered into different pieces. A book on the shelf next to where the phone crashed, fell over onto it’s side. Clint stood, his hands running up into his hair before he looked up to the ceiling, his hands dropping down. The archer didn’t even turn before he sighed. “Bucky. How... How much did you hear?”

“Enough to gather that the others are coming,” the solider calmly retorted. Clint snorted, finally turning to look at Bucky.

“They were already on their way. Likely be here in about forty minutes. Guess someone led a few false trails to various places around the globe,” Clint reported. Bucky smirked. He wasn’t really surprised at the news, even as his wolf snarled at the aspect of dealing with Steve again.

“Bought a couple different tickets, at a lot of different airports, leading to various ‘safe houses’ that Steve and Sam had originally tracked me to. Ran away from them as a wolf so there’d be no trail.”

“How far away where you, exactly?” Clint wondered, his voice suspicious now. Bucky shrugged.

“Maine, I think,” Bucky replied. Clint’s eyes widened.

“They’ve been tracking you for at least a week and a half?” Clint guessed in horror. Bucky shrugged. He hadn’t really paid attention to the passing of time as he ran. In fact, the wolf had mostly been in control through it all. Bucky didn’t really try and focus on where the wolf was going or what it was doing. They just ran and ran and ran. Clint yet again ran his hands through his hair. “Jesus. Coming here, they must be desperate.”

Sighing, the archer spun around and wandered over to the bookcase. He stepping all over the pieces of the phone without care as he glanced at each book. Finally, he grabbed what seemed to be a random book off the shelf. Bucky frowned, wondering what that would do. Leaning into the space that the book had taken up, Clint smirked and then backed away. With a groan, the bookcase shifted away, like what one would see in a spy or horror movie, and showed a set of stairs leading downward into what could be a basement. Bucky raised an eyebrow as Clint looked back at him.

“My brother is an FBI agent. For Laura and the kids’ protection, we’ve been working on a safe place to hide them. Laura in the end turned it into, basically a military grade ‘doomsday’ shelter that spans the house and all the way to the barn.”

“Paranoid much,” Bucky joked in response, unsure how else to respond to this information being shoved at him. Clint snorted as he started heading down. Bucky quickly followed after him.

“This coming from one of the world’s most infamous assassins,” Clint mumbled. Bucky couldn’t help but grin. Coming from anyone else, he might have been hurt, but hearing it from Clint felt... Good. As they neared the bottom, Clint opened up a ‘secret’ panel near the closed door. It opened to what looked to be another large living room. Toys were scattered amongst the floor as evidence that kids tended to play down here. For a doomsday shelter, it looked pretty homely. In the far back corner, Bucky noticed three doorways closely set up on two different walls. Clint pointed to the one closest to the duo. “Master bedroom through that door. Next to it is the kids room and then the bathroom.”

After that was the kitchen and small dining area backed into the corner. Right next to the fridge was a fourth doorway. Clint was already mostly through that door before Bucky noticed. Slowly, he followed after the archer. This area led to what seemed to be a pantry, with large bottles of water and prepacked single serving water bottles. Cans and long lasting food lined the shelves. Just like the living room, there was another three doorways.

“That door leads to the stream at the edge of the property, along with a very sophisticated water filtration unit. It also houses our electrical panels and the electricity just waiting to get get separated from the house,” Clint explained pointing to one of the doors. Bucky paused at that. “On the other side, that leads to a few more rooms of various purposes.”

With that, Clint headed through the last door. Bucky frowned and followed. This led to an empty hallway and another secret panel that didn’t need a code, but instead needed a hand scan. Bucky’s frown deepened but was shocked when the door opened to a large room that was filled with rows upon rows of guns, knives, swords, bows, arrows and ammo. A few tables were set up in the middle. One had a bunch of arrows taken apart on it, as if someone was making new trick arrows. Another table had some gun cleaning items. The last had Bucky’s metal arm on it. Bucky quickly went and attached it back to himself.

“How are you going to run everything? Won’t people see the energy needed?” Bucky wondered, moving about the weapon room with a slightly curious impression. Clint snorted, tossing an empty duffel onto one of the empty tables. Nearly frantically, Clint began loading different weapons and ammo into the bag. He seemed to be acting as if the devil was going to suddenly appear. A difference from how he had been acting to get down here, which had a slightly leisurely pace.

“Arc reactor. Tony heard about the shelter and for some reason, he gave me one. I didn’t understand his ramblings as why,” Clint mentioned. Bucky frowned. That didn’t seem right.

“I thought Tony had them all locked up,” Bucky commented. Clint shrugged as he zipped the first bag closed and grabbed a second.

“Don’t know what to tell ya.”

“Come on, there must be a reason,” Bucky pressed. Clint paused, turning to look at the soldier.

“No, I really don’t know what to say. I had a sign a NDA,” Clint growled. Bucky tensed. “I’m technically already breaking part of it by mentioning I have one. It’s supposed to be secret.”

“Oh.”

“Tony promised me that we’d be safe here for fifty years on just one. It will run our water filtration unit, the UV lights for our greenhouse, the mister for said greenhouse, and all the electricity needed in the other rooms to basically live. Barney and I keep upgrading the place as needed. Can’t take much more room, but we are trying to save things. A freezer in the back holds a ton of frozen meat,” Clint explained, as he zipped the second bag closed. A quick glance at it before hand showed Bucky that the bag had been mostly filled with knives and two swords. A third bag got dropped down and the first thing in it was Clint’s precious bow.

“I thought frozen food still went bad,” Bucky called.

“It does. Barney and I looked into how to properly freeze meat to exactly 0 degrees Fahrenheit and keep it stored that way. Again, another thing Tony helped with,” Clint mentioned, sighing deeply. “Kinda glad we’re leaving now. Tony knows a bit too much about this place.”

“We?”

“We got about ten minutes to get out of here,” Clint informed, finishing off the third bag and picking it up. Bucky reached and snatched the one with the guns.

“We?” Bucky repeated. Clint nodded, grabbing the last bag and heading back into the main space of the shelter. Bucky trailed after like a lost puppy.

“Yes. Tasha and the others are gonna be here in like twenty minutes. We need to be out in ten so that the guards and cops have enough time to flood the yard and Tasha knows not to stop,” Clint snapped. Bucky opened his mouth to argue against the idea. “I can’t lie to Tasha.”

“Try,” Bucky pressed, trying to beg even as his wolf tried to silence him. Lust yet again flooded his system at the thought of leaving and finding a new space. Clint groaned, turning to face him at the stairs.

“I mean, she sees right through me. Each and every time. So, I can’t lie to her,” Clint stressed, his voice strained. He sighed and turned back to head up the stairs. Bucky again followed, not paying attention to the door sealing behind him as he moved. “She’ll know. She’ll ask. I’ll try and fight her. But the longer I fight to lie, the longer all of them will be here and the time passing would easily allow everyone to descend on us. Steve, Tasha, Wanda, Sam and more than likely me... We’d be sent to the Raft.”

“I-” Bucky started, lost for words. Clint stopped him, turning to him as they both entered the living room.

“No. I protect my friends. They need to not be here and you need help,” Clint stated. With that, he turned back to the house, dropping his bags off near the doorway before heading upstairs. Bucky dropped his bag as well and followed.

“I can-” Bucky again tried. This time Clint spun on him, his face nearly red.

“YOU PASSED OUT ON MY FRONT LAWN!” the archer roared. Bucky winced as the wolf in him suddenly curled in on itself and Bucky could almost sense the literal tail between his legs. Clint sighed, rubbing his hands over his face. “God Bucky. You ate like four pizzas and a pork roast that really sucked and was likely past it’s expiration date. You didn’t take care of yourself. You ran from Maine all the way to fucking Iowa.”

“Iowa,” Bucky echoed in shock. He had never even thought to ask where he had ended up. Hearing now how far he traveled, it was an eyeopener. Clint groaned, turning to walk up the rest of the way. He stopped at the top, not even turning to look.

“How many times did you try to leave?” Clint questioned. Bucky frowned. “I saw at least three attempts. You got to the edge of the woods. Never a step further. Something in you doesn’t want to leave. And it’s either me, or this house. Considering you arrived here without knowing about it, I think it’s me.”

Suddenly, the wolf surged forward and Bucky could only watch as his body rushed at Clint, spinning the archer around just to smash their lips together. Bucky expected Clint to pull back in shock but other than a moment of surprised hesitation, Clint seemed to really enjoy it. Once Clint fell into the kiss, the wolf backed down and Bucky was in charge. At first, the soldier wanted to back away but... Kissing Clint was nothing like he expected. It felt right, perfect, electric. Blood quickly rushed from his head down to his dick. Moaning, Bucky deepened the kiss, shifting his body to rub slightly against Clint. The archer shifted as well, making them mostly flush against each other. After what felt like an eternity, the two pulled away, breathing heavily.

“While I would love to continue this. We need to move,” Clint whispered, his lips ghosting against Bucky’s before they touched foreheads. Bucky sighed deeply as Clint pulled away. “Go to the truck and pack up the bags. I’ll be there in a minute.”

Bucky forced himself to nod before moving back down the stairs. He watched as Clint disappeared into the guest room. The wolf in him grumbled at what was happening but didn’t fight as Bucky turned his back on Clint and grabbed the bags at the front door. As much as he wanted to argue and stay, Clint had many good points. For everyone involved, it was best if the two of them left.

\-------------  
Yay! I'm not late. Wasn't sure if I'd mentally be okay to post... For those of you who don't know, tomorrow, Friday the 13th, my son Clint would have been celebrating his six birthday... Don't know what I'm gonna do...

On happier news, Darius had his first week of school at the Early Learning Center. He's loving it. Soon he'll learn. He'll learn. Lol. No actually, I hope he continues to like school, makes it easier to get him on the bus. But, he's been having a good time. Excited each morning to get on his bus... After we get him dressed. Before getting dressed, eh, not so much. But then again, we are getting up much earlier than we normally do. Baby Jason has been having some pretty good days but he'd lately been getting a bit fussy. Thankfully between the four parents in the house, we figure out what is going on.

Guess that's it. Thank you for all the kudos! It's great to see the e-mail every day. And as I promised before, the sex is coming... Next chapter. Lol. Anyways, see you next week.


	4. Like a Romance Novel

CHAPTER 4 - Like a Romance Novel

Clint was silent as he drove away from his brother’s farm. Well, technically, his old childhood home. Slipping out of the government issued anklet had been so easy, Clint figured Nathaniel (his two year old nephew) would be able to easily escape from it. Once removed, it set off an alert that notified the guards that he had removed it. Clint and Bucky (mostly Bucky) had previously moved the truck off to the edge of the woods so that by the time the guards got to the house, it would simple to slip past and get on the main road. It worked just as Clint had planned it. When they got to the main road, cops just flew by them without a clue.

Bucky said nothing to Clint as they left. The archer was taking all these events too well. Clint just seemed to be ignoring the fact that he now officially destroyed any chance of him having a good life outside of jail. Bucky felt guilty but he also knew, Clint mostly was willingly doing all this. And for some reason, that knowledge made blood pour down his body and between his legs. Bucky shifted in his seat, getting uncomfortable but said nothing.

Clint drove them into the next town over and stopped at a storage building that looked rather run down and not at all secure. Bucky frowned at it as Clint carefully maneuvered the truck through the space till he stopped at once of the larger units. With a grunt, Clint opened his door, leaving the engine running, and slipped out of the truck. Confused, Bucky followed.

“Thank god they never installed security cameras here,” Clint mumbled before closing his door. Bucky watched the archer move to the back of the truck and grab two of the now five bags.

“What are we doing here?” Bucky asked, not even attempting to grab a bag as he followed Clint to the locked unit. Clint turned to look at him before shaking his head and started working on getting a second set of keys out of his pocket then opened the lock on the door to the unit. Bucky’s eyes widened as Clint yanked the door open and showed off the silver Toyota Sienna that was parked inside. “Seriously?”

“Help me get the bags, then get in. The car is pre-loaded with extra clothes, water and some food,” Clint called, opening one of the sliding doors to toss the bags he grabbed inside. After that, he left the door open and back headed to the truck. He went to open his door before looking at Bucky. The soldier was frowning and hadn’t moved. Clint couldn’t stop his sigh before shifting to the back of the truck and removed a few more of overloaded bags from the back. He slammed the trunk closed. “My brother and I have a long list of enemies. A lot of my safe houses got burned in the SHIELD dump.”

“Sorry,” Bucky couldn’t help but mutter, guilt sweeping through him. Clint shook his head.

“Could have happened at any point. To either of us. That’s why we shared the lists to each other under our various names. Names that SHIELD or the FBI would never use for us,” Clint explained. It took a lot of time and energy to keep up each identity as well. Both men used Clint’s old assassin money and Barney’s, long ago collected, stolen funds to pay not only for storage units, but houses and people to care for said houses. They also liked to buy random things for the houses or simply rented them out so that the cover seemed like an actual person. And earn a bit of extra money to care for the bills. “I need to get the truck in here and then we’ll move on.”

“To where?” Bucky asked as Clint walked past him to grab a few more bags. This time, Bucky joined in and grabbed the rest. They both put them in the Sienna. “We’re gonna be on the run from the government and Steve and Natasha.”

“Canada. Not the first time I’ve had to hide,” Clint retorted, spinning to get into the driver’s seat of the van. The engine started without an issue and Clint quickly pulled it out of the unit, Bucky shifting only slightly to get out of the way. Clint said nothing about that before heading to the truck. As he went to pass by, Bucky reached out and snagged the archer’s arm.

“How long?” Bucky hissed, wondering what he could do now to fix all this mess he had gotten the archer into. Clint shouldn’t be on the run again because of him. But just that thought alone sent the wolf in him growling and trying to take over. Bucky nearly found he couldn’t hold the creature back. Especially when Clint ripped his arm away during Bucky’s distracted moment.

“I don’t know,” the archer angrily stated. Bucky winced making Clint sigh and calm down a bit. He looked to the ground. “I don’t know. But... We’ll know when it’s right to come back.”

“How?” Bucky murmured. Clint looked to him.

“How did you know it was the right time to let Steve catch you?”

“I got caught in a vice,” Bucky snipped. (I know, not MCU compliant as that happens after the conditioning in ‘jail’) Clint barked out an angered laugh that made Bucky narrow his eyes.

“Steve told me that it was only your metal arm. The same metal arm that you took off in two seconds at the farm. Not only that, Steve ripped the damn thing open! Sam told me that at the Raft. He even mentioned that you more than likely let them catch you,” Clint cried, his voice slowly getting softer as he spoke. Bucky looked down at the ground, the wolf whining in him, nearly begging to lick Clint’s face in an attempt at forgiveness. Something in Bucky’s frame must have spoke to the archer as Clint sighed deeply. Gently, he patted the soldier’s shoulder. “We’ll take it day by day.”

\-------

They drove the rest of the day in companionable silence. Clint made sure to only stop for gas and they’d use that time to get food (mainly snacks), drinks (that wasn’t water) and to take a bathroom break. Bucky didn’t mind it as much as he thought he might have. But as the day progressed, Bucky found he was having a hard time just sitting next to Clint. The wolf wanted to start rubbing against the archer, preening and preparing for other activities. No matter how much Bucky tried to shift himself away from Clint, the feeling grew and grew. Clint must have noticed something was up cause a few hours before sunset, he pulled up into a Quality Inn.

“We’ll rest here tonight. Separate rooms?” Clint asked, glancing at the soldier. Bucky wanted to agree but instead found himself shaking his head no. Clint hummed, his eyes critically scanning Bucky over. With that, the archer got up and left the car. As the door closed, Bucky suddenly felt even worse. He was sweating with want, desire and he vocally whined as Clint headed into the building without him. Closing his eyes, Bucky tried to fight back. He wasn’t going to do anything. He was better than this! After a few minutes, Clint came back and quickly noticed Bucky was not doing so well. “Buck?”

“Somethings... Wrong,” Bucky panted, wishing now that he had had the ability to have told Clint to get separate rooms. He really didn’t want to attack the archer in the middle of the night and whatever the wolf wanted, certainly involved the archer. Clint’s eyes widened before he jumped into action. Bucky felt himself fade out, fighting the wolf from taking control. He came back to himself to be standing in a bathroom. Clint was leaning over a bathtub, trying to fill it.

“It’s okay. Just gotta bring down that fever,” Clint chanted, a hand still reaching up to Bucky’s arm in an effort to center the soldier. The archer must have been saying that most of the time that Bucky was focused inwardly as his voice cracked a bit. At that, Bucky found himself whining again, dropping to his knees next to Clint. The archer stilled. Suddenly, Bucky leaned forward and rubbed his head and face against Clint’s neck. He did it a few times until Clint let out a moan. Apparently the archer was liking it. “Buck, you aren’t feeling good.”

Clint turned to look at the soldier, only to get Bucky to trap their lips together. Again, Clint moaned, opening his mouth for Bucky to deepen the kiss. They stayed like that long enough for the bath to fill up enough that Clint had to break away to stop the water. As he did, Bucky began rubbing himself against Clint, his hand slowly creeping under the archer’s shirt. Clint gasped as Bucky nipped at the archer’s neck.

“Buck-” Clint moaned, trying to push the soldier away. It wasn’t hard for Bucky to fight back as honestly didn’t seem like Clint was really fighting to stop whatever was going on. Bucky’s hand slipped down now, moving to the elastic of Clint’s pants. Clint gasped in surprise but didn’t stop the soldier. “We... We can’t.”

Bucky whined, rubbing his hand down into Clint’s pants and gently touching the archer’s now engorged dick. Clint arched back, sucking in air before frantically trying to back away. Glancing at the tub, Clint went to tell Bucky he should get in but Bucky used his metal hand to rip the archer’s shirt and then lick the entire center of Clint’s body. Clint’s moan and twitching cock made Bucky’s own length twitch with anticipation.

“Bed,” Clint finally choked out, not able to fight any longer and he knew that if he tried any longer, Bucky would likely take him here on the bathroom floor. And from previous experience, that was not comfortable for either party. Bucky whined as Clint got up off the ground but followed, both men quickly stripping off all their remaining clothes. Once in the other room, Bucky found himself pushing Clint down onto the nearest of the two beds. Before he could drop down on top of the archer, Clint twisted to face the soldier. Bucky growled before trapping Clint’s mouth with his again. As he broke it, Bucky began to kiss, nip and lick Clint’s neck and chest. Clint couldn’t stop the moan, nor the arching of his body, pushing their dicks together. “Bucky.”

Slowly, Bucky began to nip and lick his way down Clint’s chest. Clint gripped his fingers into Bucky’s hair, letting out ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’ the whole way down. When Bucky finally reached Clint’s now aching and pre-cumed dick, the soldier sniffed it before giving it a gently lick. Clint jerked forward, as if Bucky has sucked him instead. The archer swore at it even as Bucky traveled further down, sniffing between Clint’s legs and kissing the archer’s thighs. Clint kept moaning the whole way, shifting this way and that as if debating whether he should fight this or keep going.

“Bucky, please,” Clint groaned. Apparently that was enough for Bucky as he suddenly flipped Clint over, making the archer basically present his ass to the soldier. Clint gasped and got his upper half onto his forearms as Bucky shifted his own cock toward Clint’s hole. Clint whined as Bucky began to slowly work his dick into the dry, unprepared space. Whimpering at the slowness, Clint jerked back, nearly making Bucky bottom out in one hit. It wasn’t all that pleasant for either of them, but it got the job down. “Bucky!”

With a grunt, Bucky began to move, pushing himself most of the way in and nearly all the way out in a pounding pace. The rhythm was faster than Clint expected but the archer couldn’t help but enjoy it, using his arms to pounded his body back into Bucky. Both men grunted, groaned and whined with each move until they found themself far to close to the edge. Bucky pushed in harder. Right then Clint felt another ridge enter him. That wasn’t right. Clint had had sex with men before and none of them had whatever just entered into him.

“Bucky, somethings wrong,” Clint called, his voice much clearer and out of the lust filled haze it had been only moments before. Bucky either didn’t hear or didn’t care as he kept it up, the ridge coming in and out a little with each hit. He was now hitting Clint hard enough that the archer and the bed moved forward with each pump. Then, Clint felt something else, the ridge stayed in and Bucky’s dick started expanding inside him. Clint gasped, slowly feeling the strain as he was stretched further than expected. It didn’t take long before it expanded further than Clint had ever had before. And it was getting a bit painful. “Bucky! Bucky, we need to stop!”

But Bucky was so close, almost there and he really didn’t want to stop just on the edge. Clint let out a cry of pain, unsure what else to do when Bucky kept going. Confused, the archer’s muscles clenching on Bucky’s dick and seemingly forced the soldier to cum with a guttural roar. As Bucky’s orgasm began to subside, Bucky noted that Clint was whimpering beneath him. That wasn’t supposed to happen. Clint also seemed slightly hard but hadn’t cum as well.

“Clint?” he asked, his voice cracking. Concerned, he tried to pull away but quickly noted he couldn’t just as Clint cried out in either pain or shock. Bucky didn’t know which.

“DON’T! Oh god, don’t pull out,” Clint quite literally begged. Bucky found himself whining in confusion. What was going on? Why was he unable to pull out? And why did it ‘hurt’ Clint when he tried? Clint gasped. “There’s... Something up with your dick.” 

“What?” Bucky asked, fighting the urge to rear back and check. Clint moaned, dropping his head down onto the bed, his arms shaking. Bucky shifted in an attempt to make the archer more comfortable but it just elicited another cry.

“Your dick... It... Grew in me. I can’t move away,” Clint whined, his body still trying to adjust to what happened. Bucky glanced down, somehow not jostling them. It didn’t matter anyway, he couldn’t see anything other than being still completely bottomed out inside Clint.

“I don’t-” Bucky started, unsure how to finish that. Then Clint clenched his muscles again. The shock of it released a secondary but minor orgasm. “Hngh.”

“Bucky, please,” Clint whimpered. He wanted whatever to happen shrink right now. It was hard for him to get used to this and he was having a hard time staying up. Bucky looked around. They couldn’t stay like this. Clint’s shaking was getting worse and Bucky could feel his own muscles wanting to give in and drop onto the archer. Before the archer could protest, Bucky jerked them to the left so that Bucky was laying on his metal arm. Clint let out a surprised screech at the sudden twist but quickly settled once they stopped moving. “Oh god...”

“I’m sorry,” Bucky whispered, rubbing his head against Clint’s neck again and leaving light kisses and nips in its wake. Clint let out a nearly silent sob at the action but didn’t shift his head away at all.

“God, what is going on? What happened?” Clint inquired as if this had happened to Bucky before. Bucky shook his head against the back of Clint’s neck.

“I don’t know,” the soldier replied. Clint shifted, making Bucky gasp in shock as a third orgasm rocked through him. “Oh god... Are... Are you okay now?”

“Just... Just don’t move,” Clint mumbled, his face turning into the pillow he was laying on. Bucky nodded. He could do that. For a few more minutes both men laid as tense as a tight rope but neither could hold it very long. Clint thankfully was the first to relax as he had gotten used to the size finally. Bucky used the relaxed body as a sign that he could as well. They laid like that, waiting for Bucky’s dick to get with the program and stop whatever the hell it was doing.

For a little over thirty minutes the two stayed tied to each other. Then, before either of them noticed, with a squelching pop, the two were freed from each other. Bucky scrambled away and vanished into the bathroom before Clint even attempted to move. Locking the door, Bucky leaned against it. Fearfully, he slowly looked down at his dick. There, just at the base was some sort of bubble like thing. It wasn’t all that large now but it was still shocking to see. He whimpered at the sight before gently moving to touch it. At the gently probing, his dick twitched and began to re-harden. Squashing that idea, Bucky noticed the tub was still filled with cold water. Another look at his now enlarged dick, Bucky slipped into it.

\-------

“Clint?” Bucky called, afraid to leave the bathroom after what had happened. His dick was now back to being flaccid but who knows if it’d stay that way. Bucky had to stay in the water for far longer than he ever thought needed in an attempt to stop it from enlarging once again. A curious grunt was his only response. It didn’t sound angry so with a deep frown, the soldier moved further out of the bathroom. “You okay?”

“Honestly... Sore, very stretched out but... Not bleeding,” Clint easily admitted, his voice not even hinting at the fear and ‘pain’ the archer had experienced while trapped to Bucky. Bucky came out of the bathroom all the way, a towel wrapped around his waist. Clint glanced at him from over his phone. Apparently, he hadn’t wanted to get dressed as Clint sat against the headboard, completely nude. Again, Bucky felt the blood rush downward and his dick twitched. For half a second, Bucky wondered if he should return to the bathroom for another cold bath or shower. “I think what happened was a wolf thing.”

“What?” Bucky asked, fighting to keep his mind out of the gutter.

“Well. Wolves apparently only mate during January to April,” Clint mentioned as if that was the answer. Bucky frowned.

“It’s March. But that doesn’t explain the-”

“Wolves have a knot,” Clint interrupted. Bucky paused, his mind emptying at that.

“Knot?”

“Male wolves have a...” Clint began, pausing to look at his phone. “Bulbus glandis, or knot, that will swell inside the female just before ejaculation to tie the female to him and keep the sperm inside for a higher chance of pregnancy.”

“Are... Are you shitting me?” Bucky cried, moving closer to check out Clint’s phone all thoughts of sex and shower gone. And indeed, many sites on the search engine agreed that all types of canines have this ‘bulbus glandis’ at the base of their dick. “What the fuck?”

“Yeah. Sorry,” Clint muttered, his eyes downcast. Bucky looked over at Clint in shock.

“Sorry?” he incredulously repeated. Clint winced. “No, I should be the one who’s sorry. You... You had this thing inside you, keeping us... ‘Tied.’”

“Honestly Bucky… I’m willing to go again,” Clint mumbled, not looking at him. Before Bucky could protest, the archer swiftly got up.

“What?” Bucky called, warily watching the archer. Clint shrugged, keeping his back to Bucky and now the soldier could see his cum starting to leak out Clint’s ass. The view made Bucky’s dick rapidly harden, but it was still covered by the towel, so Clint wouldn’t see it if he turned and Bucky certainly wasn’t planning on moving. The surprise and fear of what happened allowed Bucky to take control over the wolf.

“I dunno... I mean, don’t get me wrong, it hurt six ways to Sunday in the beginning but... As long as neither of us tried to pull away, it was nice. Now... Now I think I’m stretched out enough that it wouldn’t hurt so bad,” Clint stuttered, shaking his head over the whole thing. Bucky stared at him. The wolf used his surprise to surge forward in an attempt to take control. The soldier jumped to his feet, moving away from the archer as Clint turned back to look at him. The towel dropped. “Bucky?”

“No... No, I… We...” Bucky panted, quickly feeling himself starting to lose control like he had before. Clint frowned, seeing all the signs but still unsure what was happening. Yeah, the soldier was hard and seemed ready again but he was vocally refusing to do anything.

“Bucky?” Clint cautiously asked, moving closer, his hands raised to show he had no weapons and meant no harm. Bucky shook his head, trying to move away some more but bumped into the nightstand. “Bucky, what’s-”

The wolf surged forward, grabbing Clint and pulling him into a force full kiss. Yet again, Clint quickly drifted in and began kissing Bucky back, his hands moving up to touch the other man’s chest. Bucky shuddered, his body already completely ready for round two. Something in Clint must have said the same thing, but this time round, Clint was going to be in charge. The archer spun Bucky around and pushed him onto the bed. Like Clint had originally tried to place himself, Bucky landed on his back, but unlike before, Clint climbed onto the bed, straddling Bucky’s body.

“Clint,” Bucky growled out, fighting to regain himself from the wolf. Clint’s eyes flashed in concern but when Bucky’s face still seemed to show he was ready, the archer let out a huff before slamming his ass down onto Bucky’s engorged dick. Both men cried out in pleasure at the shock. Clint waited a moment to get them both used to this before he started riding Bucky as if the solider was a bull, bucking wildly out of control. Climax for both of them hit much faster but this time, when Bucky’s dick enlarged itself, they were both ready for it. With Clint leading, the orgasm ended up hitting at the same time and they yelled out in sync even as Clint continued to coax more out of Bucky. When they were both spent, Clint dropped down onto Bucky’s chest, pulling tight on the knot. Both of them moaned in pleasure before Bucky shifted to drop Clint onto the bed beside him. “Fuck.”

“So, much, better,” Clint gasped out, his head placed on Bucky’s chest. Bucky snorted, relaxing back a bit. Forward facing knot was a bit harder on his dick than he wanted it to be, but Clint was right. After getting used to it, it felt nice.

“I’m gonna need another shower or bath,” Bucky replied when he shifted a bit and felt Clint’s cum on his stomach. There was a second before Clint started laughing. With a shake of his head, Clint leaned back to look at Bucky.

“We should probably make sure whatever is happening is well and truly over before that,” the archer cooed. Bucky snorted again. Sighing, Clint relaxed more. “I think I’m gonna fall asleep.”

“Go ahead. Apparently we have around half an hour before either of us can move,” Bucky pointed out. Clint snorted, shifting to lay his head against Bucky’s chest. The wolf in his growled in pleasure and Bucky got the feeling of staking claim on the archer.

“Romantic.”

\-------

The sex has finally arrived! Hope it seemed right. I’ve never written a sex scene before and I certainly didn’t know anything about two men doing it. This whole story was created for this particular reason. I kept reading other stories like this and I wanted to give it a shot. But, I refused to do porn without plot. So this is more a porn with plot.

Darius is doing good. Having a great time at school and at daycare. Almost missed the bus on Wednesday. Thankfully I saw it driving past and was able to run out and catch it. But of course, you tell a kid to move faster.... They slow down. -_- Still, he was able to get on the bus and head to school. Baby Jason has seemed to have gotten into a nice routine. Currently I’m watching both him and Darius alone and thankfully, Jason fell asleep. And like before, you tell a kid to be quiet... Well, you know. Darius is doing pretty good though. Only had to warn him a few times.

Anyway. Thank you all for the kudos! It means a lot to see. Hope you enjoyed!


	5. Moving On

CHAPTER 5 - Moving On

They ended up having mind blowing, knotted sex at least five more times before the wolf seemed sated. To conserve time and energy, they showered together, helping each other out as they both felt the need to collapse. Thankfully they were both too spent for it to be sexual in any way. As they exited the shower, both men stared at the bed they had all that sex on. Glancing at the other bed in the room, they paused. Clint shrugged.

“We shared at the farm,” he pointed out. Bucky snorted, not willing to fight that he had been a wolf and it was a mistake. Together, they laid down, neither bothering with any clothes just in case Bucky randomly needed to go another round. They ended up drifting off into the most restful sleep either had gotten in years. The morning saw Clint waking to a face full of fur. Coughing, he back away. His movements waking wolf-Bucky who scrambled to get off the bed, whimpering. Guiltily, Clint reached out for him, wincing when his bare chest rubbed against Bucky’s chilled metal arm. “Buck.”

But the wolf continued to back away, not even caring that he was only on three legs. But the bed wasn’t all that big so it only took a few more steps before the wolf fell to the ground with a soft ‘whoomp.’ By the time Clint scrambled over to the same edge, Bucky had already returned to normal, shivering in a mix of panic and cold.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Bucky chanted, not even looking up at the archer. Clint sighed. He thought Bucky was over this. Especially after the seven times of mind blowing sex. But, he guessed wrong.

“Bucky, it’s fine,” Clint tried to sooth but Bucky shook his head.

“No, I could have killed you. I could kill you,” Bucky whimpered, getting up and heading to the door where Clint had dropped the bags that he somehow had snuck in when Bucky must have been lost in his lust haze. Behind him, Clint groaned and got up himself. Bucky stilled when Clint moved to stand next to him.

“You could kill me as a human too. So, what difference does it make if you’re a wolf?” Clint asked. The wolf inside him tried hard to turn and rub himself all over Clint in an attempt to do more of the night before activities. Thankfully, Bucky was able to stop himself just in time.

“That doesn’t help,” Bucky muttered, grabbing some clothes that he hoped would fit him. Clint sighed before grabbing his own. They got dressed in silence and Bucky reattached his fallen arm. After they did, Clint turned to go about cleaning up some of the mess they made. Bucky turned back to him. “I’m-”

“Don’t say sorry. Everything is fine. I was a willing participant, and I’m fine sleeping beside you as a human or as a wolf,” Clint snipped, his gaze shifting quickly to glare at the soldier. Bucky snorted at that while shaking his head.

“I don’t think you’d have a choice,” he muttered, feeling his wolf pressing to go another round. How many times did these creatures go? They couldn’t have sex every night. Could they?

“Shove it. Lets just get going. Still got two days before we get to the safe house in Canada,” Clint angrily retorted, grabbing the solo bag and storming out. Bucky sighed. This was not going how he wanted this morning to go. Not that he had made a plan to start with. Since he got bit and realized what he was, he’d been on the run. It wasn’t till he was with Clint that he felt anything close to safe and normal. Knowing he messed up, Bucky sighed again then steeled his resolve before heading out to the van. He arrive just as Clint stalked past.

“Clint?”

“Checking out,” the archer snapped, not even looking at Bucky.

And that was how the rest of the day went. Clint refused to say more than a few words to Bucky and when he did, it was always in a harsh tone. At first, Bucky was grateful. His wolf had calmed down and didn’t want to run himself all over the archer. But, the longer it went on, the more frustrated Bucky got. It wasn’t till Clint took an exit too hard and too fast before the soldier snapped.

“Park it,” he demanded. Clint barely glanced at him. Bucky growled. “Park it. We’re stopping for the night.”

“Got a few more hours of daylight,” Clint hissed. His longest statement since leaving the hotel. Bucky snarled, a little of his wolf perking up and joining in. This was getting tiresome for both of them.

“Park it,” he growled. In anger, Clint spun to the side of the road and slammed on the brakes. If Bucky hadn’t had his seat belt on, he’d likely have gone through the windshield. Even more angered now, Bucky shifted the car into park, then turned off the car, yanking the keys away with him. Clint looked at him, his eyes narrowed but slightly curious. “What the hell, Barton?”

“Do you not see your hypocrisy here?” Clint replied, finally ready to talk. Bucky frowned, some of his anger leaking away. What hypocrisy? What was Clint talking about? “You’re so afraid of killing me as a wolf, but you forget. We’re both highly trained assassins.” Bucky sighed, wanting to argue but he knew Clint was right. Clint snorted, looking away. “I may not look it when off duty, but my name was stated in just as much fear and worship as Black Widow and Winter Soldier. Before Sam, I was the only non-modified, metal encased human out there. I fight along side a god and a green goliath that could shatter me with one hit. Yet you think your wolf could stop me? Three times you could have killed me as a wolf. But you didn’t. Hell, you didn’t even try.”

Bucky winced. Yes, Clint was a human. But he was also right. Bucky hadn’t been trusting the archer. He should have realized that Clint was just as capable as the others. Hell, Steve had pretty much demanded Clint be added to the team when Bucky had mentioned the five other super soldiers. Sam likely wouldn’t have been there if he wasn’t already with them. Scott, while being another human, could shrink to nothing, vanishing without a trace. And Wanda... Well, she had her powers. Bucky should have given Clint much more credit than he had been.

“I’m sorry,” Bucky mumbled, slightly humbled in his feelings. Clint snorted.

“I don’t want an apology. I want you to stop doing this whole ‘whoa is me, I’m a dangerous wolf’ schtick,” Clint demanded. Bucky curled in on himself a bit, the wolf figuratively tucking his tail between his legs. It sounded so familiar. Actually, it was pretty close to what Shuri had told him before the attempt at cryo. Clint let out a moan, draping himself across the steering wheel. “Look, I get it. Both of us had out minds fucked over by someone else. That causes a lot of issues.”

“That-”

“We’ve also been turned into something else,” Clint added, cutting Bucky off. Bucky frowned. He had never heard that. Clint snorted. Even though the archer hadn’t looked, he could tell what Bucky’s face was saying. “Fucking magic. Didn’t stick like yours but... It’s the lack of control. You don’t like that your other side could just take over. While you’ve gotten over the Winter Soldier side, you now have the wolf.”

“I-” Bucky stuttered. Clint shook his head, not interested in what Bucky was going to say.

“You wanna stop, fine. Give me the keys. There’s a hotel just up the road.”

\------------

Much like the last time, checking in was relatively simple. But this time, as Clint got the keys, Bucky was able to get out and grab their bags. He made sure to hide a few guns in the bags as well, surprised that Clint hadn’t done that the other night. Clint put a lot of trust in Bucky. Trust that Bucky still questioned if he deserved. When Clint got back, the archer also grabbed some of the last snack bags from the other gas station. While there had been a small discussion on the way about getting two rooms, in the end it didn’t matter. The place only had one free room.

The room was just slightly bigger than the one at the inn but... There was still two Queen sized beds and a night stand between them. The room also had an added extra seat, tucked in the front corner as if only one person was staying. A small table that seemed to hold no purpose as there were no other chairs placed right next to the door, it sat a short distance away from the seat in the corner. Bucky dropped his bags onto the chair, turning to see Clint drop the snacks on the table. Clint didn’t even look at him as he walked past toward the bathroom.

“I’m gonna shower. Then we can see what’s on TV,” the archer called before closing the bathroom door. It was then that Bucky realized, Clint hadn’t grabbed a change of clothes. He stilled, his wolf creeping forward as if realizing something was going to happen. Clint would be naked, just in the next room. Suddenly, Bucky was rock hard and sent into a fast free fall of want, need, lust... Panting heavily, the soldier found himself stumbling to the bathroom, desperate for help. He crashed into the closed door but it didn’t budge. “Bucky?”

“Clint,” Bucky whined, his voice sounding weak to his own ears. The door ripped open as if Bucky had announced intruders. Before Bucky, now off balanced, could fall to the floor, Clint was there, hugging the soldier close. He was saying something, but Bucky’s mind couldn’t catch on. The wolf made him start nuzzling Clint, not even noticing that the archer was already nude. Bucky just needed to scent mark Clint, see if he was ready. Clint gave out a soft cuss but didn’t push Bucky away. Instead, he hefted the solider up (a feat that Bucky hadn’t ever imagined Clint to be able to do) and walked him to the nearest bed. Before he dropped, Bucky found himself sliding out of the now far too tight pants.

“God... No shower then,” Clint muttered, gently pushing Bucky onto the bed. Bucky whined again, trying to rub himself against Clint more. Get the archer ready. But Clint wouldn’t have anything to do with that. Instead, his head moved down Bucky’s body and gently blew on the aching dick below. Bucky twitched, his human side liking where this was going while his wolf became confused. Smiling, Clint licked Bucky’s tip in a lazy circle. The wolf growled, reaching out to try and pull Clint up, but Clint evaded the hands, licking Bucky once again.

“Clint,” Bucky whimpered, warring with his two halves. With that, Clint took in as much of Bucky’s cock as he could. He stopped just at the knot, neither man really wanting to know what the knot could do to Clint’s mouth if it expanded. The feeling made Bucky arch up, the wolf nearly completely vanishing. Experimentally, Clint moved his tongue around the dick, still buried deep in his mouth. Bucky groaned. It felt good. Then Clint sucked, pulling back, his tongue and teeth gently ravishing the dick. “Fuck! Clint!”

Clint smiled, pushing down and doing it all over again. Bucky jumped, swearing again. This was too good. If Clint continued going this way, Bucky was going to cum in a ridiculously short amount of time. Clint repeated this, over and over, sometimes adding in a quick tongue flick as he removed the cock to take a breath. Bucky was quickly brought to the edge. He was right there. But no matter what Clint did, he just couldn’t go over. He writhed, moaned, cussed, jumped and all but fucked Clint’s mouth raw, but he still couldn’t get over the edge.

“Huh,” Clint suddenly called, pulling away from Bucky curiously. Without a thought, Bucky flipped, shoving Clint face first into the bed. Before Clint could even try and fight, Bucky slammed his aching dick into Clint’s now exposed ass. “AAH!”

Even Clint’s cry of pain couldn’t stop Bucky now, he was so close. With one more jerk, Bucky got his knot into Clint’s abused hole. Clint let out a pleased but pained moan even as the knot quickly swelled up. When it got too much, Clint’s muscles clenched, having learned the night before that that was all it took to stop it. Bucky then released himself into the archer, collapsing onto Clint’s back as he road out the many more shock waves of orgasm then he had ever felt before. Grunting, Clint flipped them to their side while moving further onto the bed.

“So... Good?” Clint couldn’t help but ask when Bucky finally came to his senses. Bucky chuckled, still working on forming a fully coherent thought. Clint smirked. “Blow jobs are out then?”

“No...” Bucky moaned. While it had been torturous to be so close to the edge, the release of tension was totally worth it. But then his mind supplied the rough handling of the archer. “Unless... It bothered you?”

Clint snorted, trying to turn and look back at Bucky. Bucky leaned back a bit so they could look eye to eye.

“Dude, that was awesome after you got in. First few bits sucked,” Clint laughed. Bucky sighed, laying his head onto Clint’s shoulder. He knew he had hurt the archer. Guilt flushed through him even as Clint rubbed his back against Bucky’s body. “So, I’m guessing this is gonna be a nightly thing?”

“I don’t know,” Bucky mumbled, his face going red as he thought about it. Clint smiled, tilting his head back to that the back of their heads touched.

“Cause, I’m cool with it. But, uh. Maybe soon we can try some lube, so it doesn’t hurt as much?” Bucky jerked back, causing them to both feel pain as the knot titled back. Guilty, Bucky leaned forward again, but tried making the knot the only point of skin contact. 

“I hurt you! Jesus, Barton,” Bucky cried even as he moved. Clint grunted, not wanting that, so he shifted back, trapping Bucky to him.

“It’s fine. Would hurt anyone for a moment to have a dick shoved in them with no prep. But, I get it and I’m still mostly stretched out from last night,” Clint pointed out. Bucky growled, not liking any of this anymore.

“It shouldn’t have to hurt.”

“I know. Hence mentioning the lube,” Clint snorted. Bucky sighed, yet again shifting so his head relaxed against Clint’s shoulder. Clint shifted, making Bucky’s head fall into the small of his shoulders. “You seemed to set off faster this time. Do you know what happened?”

Bucky flushed, quickly remembering the image of Clint naked in the bathroom. Both men let out a groan of pleasure as Bucky’s cock twitched inside Clint. Clint couldn’t help but smirk. He was beginning to get an idea of what happened. Bucky shifted he head so his face was half buried in the pillows they were laying on. “I have an idea.”

“Gonna share?”

“You.” For a moment there was silence as Bucky’s answer filtered through Clint’s mind. That wasn’t fully the answer the archer had expected. Bucky coughed out an embarrassed chuckle. “You said you were going to shower and...”

“You pictured me?” Clint finished. He had assumed that Bucky pictured something that turned him on, but not Clint himself. Bucky nodded into Clint’s back. Clint couldn’t help but feel flattered by that. If just thinking about the archer’s naked form got Bucky so hard and flustered, Clint needed to learn more about that.

“Look, this never happened before. I don’t get it and it might just be a one off thing, but...” Bucky started but Clint nudged his back into Bucky to get him to stop. What was once flattery was now rapidly turning into regret.

“Hey, I’m only asking so that I know for the future. It’s no skin off my teeth to have sex with you every night,” Clint mentioned, suddenly flushing at the way that could be taken. Yeah, when Clint was a kid and found a Captain America comic book, he wasn’t fascinated with the ‘Man with a Plan.’ Instead, his thoughts were focused on Bucky, the young sharp shooting side kick. But then, while being an assassin for hire, Clint learned about the real James Barnes, who was actually a year older than Steve. And boy, did that just change Clint’s lusting desire to something less pedophiliac like. Bucky chuckled, kicking Clint out of his embarrassed musings.

“Thanks.”

\----------

In the end, Clint was able to take his shower. Be it with a very cuddly and horny Bucky attached to him. Well... What did that matter? As the shower finished, Clint tried to towel dry but Bucky wouldn’t back down. Instead the poor guy started to basically rut against the archer. Clint would have laughed it Bucky wasn’t giving him saddened eyes.

“Bucky, please,” Clint moaned as Bucky dropped down enough to grasp onto Clint’s now hardened member. But Clint was determined and both of them had decided that Bucky should try and hold off as much as possible. “I need to dry off.”

“Bed,” Bucky grunted back, the wolf rearing forward to man-handle the still wet archer to it. Clint couldn’t help the yelp of surprise before he found himself roughly deposited on the same bed they had used before. Bucky quickly moved between the archer’s legs.

“Buck,” Clint moaned as the soldier leaned forward and licked the entire length of Clint’s spine. Well, apparently that was as long as Bucky could hold off. They were going to go again. “Jesus.”

As Bucky reached Clint’s neck, he shoved his dick into Clint’s hole, the water from the shower and the sex from earlier making it a much less painful experience. Clint gasped, arching into Bucky more. Feral-like, Bucky pushed him back down and began a very slow and relaxed pace. Far more loving and gently than any of their other encounters. Bucky leaned forward, trapping Clint’s cock onto the bed as he went. Clint moaned, the rocking motion causing enough friction on his dick to make it somewhat pleasurable.

“God, Bucky,” he gasped just in time for the soldier to start kissing and nipping at Clint’s neck. Unconsciously, Clint bared his throat to Bucky and suddenly, Bucky felt overcome by the need to bite down on the crook of Clint’s neck. Horrified, he quickly scrambled off, leaving both of them unsatisfied. Getting up, Clint looked over to Bucky who had fallen against the far wall and was dropping to sit down. “Buck?”

“No... No, I can’t,” Bucky moaned, grabbing his head to shut the now furious wolf up. “No.”

“Did I do something wrong?” Clint asked, moving to Bucky in an attempt to find out what was wrong. Bucky whimpered before his body tilted sideways and twisted till he was laying beside Clint’s knees. Confused, Clint shifted so that his right leg was beside Bucky. Bucky groaned, leaning forward enough to force the archer to spread his legs over the soldier’s body and then forced Clint right onto his aching cock. Clint let out a shocked cry but allowed Bucky to take the lead. Bucky used his hands on the archer’s hips to force Clint up and down, twisting and writing as he did.

At one point, Clint leaned forward to give Bucky a chaste kiss but the soldier growled and forced Clint to sit back up. It wasn’t much longer before Bucky found himself lifting off the floor to shove his knot into Clint. It rapidly expanded and Clint, for some unknown reason to Bucky, allowed it to get much bigger than either of them were used to before clenching.

“FUCK!” Bucky roared, cumming inside Clint as the archer began spurting all over his chest, even without any help. As they both finished, Clint collapsed onto Bucky, spreading his seed all over both of their chests. Clint made a displeased face at that but didn’t make any move to get back up.

“So much for that shower,” he grumbled. Bucky snorted, twisting them so they both laid on their side. Even if they were still on the floor. They laid there for maybe five minutes before Clint looked at Bucky. “What happened?”

“Hmm?”

“Why did you freak out?” Clint clarified. Bucky looked away. How could he explain it? Explain that the wolf in his wanted to mark and claim Clint? Wanted to show the world that Clint was his? It was stupid and barbaric.

“I almost bit you,” Bucky mumbled. Clint frowned. He didn’t see an issue with that. A few of his partners had liked to do that. Leave marks on his body. Bucky must have sensed something in Clint’s body language cause he continued. “I got changed cause a wolf bit me. I really don’t wanna know if my bite can change you.”

“Oh,” Clint called, ending discussion until Bucky finally ‘deflated.’ Once he did, the soldier scrambled away. Clint sat up, his ass beginning to seriously leak out semen. “How bout we get dressed and watch a movie till we fall asleep?”

Bucky nodded, not willing to try and hang out nude as his wolf was already trying to ask to go again. Thankfully, after a quick wipe down on both their chest and clothes put on, the wolf backed down. Nothing happened for the rest of the night, other than Bucky curling himself up beside Clint, who was still sitting at the head of the bed, watching TV. In the morning, they packed quickly and Clint checked them out before they were on the road again. About an hour into the drive, Bucky realized Clint had said they were going to Canada and that they had left in Iowa. Canada wasn’t a three day drive from Iowa.

“I thought we were going to Canada,” Bucky mumbled, turning to look at Clint. Was the archer betraying him? Could he have set up some sort of meeting place with Steve and Natasha to turn him over?

“You don’t have a passport that isn’t burned,” Clint retorted as if that answered everything. Bucky’s silence made Clint sigh. “I have to sneak us over the border. Even if we get you a fake passport, the cameras will catch your face. Facial recognition software has improved a lot since Hydra began caring. Flying around in a Wakandan jet is much different than crossing borders on land. Never mind the fact that I’m now currently, yet again, a fugitive of the law.”

“Oh,” Bucky mumbled. That made sense. He hadn’t really thought about any thing like that before. Yeah, he had avoided cameras when Steve was looking for him seemingly so long ago, and crossed borders in Europe rather easily but... Now as a wanted fugitive in nearly every country, it wouldn’t be as easy to stay undetected. Then Bucky’s mind supplied more details. Details like Clint having packed mostly long sleeve shirts, or sweatshirts to cover his arm. Never letting Bucky go into the lobbies of the hotels. And not letting him stay long at gas stations. Normally, he was more attentive than this.

“Trust me, if I suddenly turned into a wolf and tried running from my friends, I doubt I’d think about it much either,” Clint mentioned, a quick glance at Bucky in a soothing manner. Bucky sighed and looked to the archer just in time to see the intersection that they were passing through. They had no stop sign, there was no light, but that huge black sedan didn’t seem to care.

\-------------

Yay! Another chapter! Thank you to all those lovely kudos! It's great to see people like this.

Darius is doing good... Except for today.... Spent two hours trying to get the kid to nap but all he wanted to do was go downstairs. So then I gave in and went to go downstairs but he decided he wanted to play in the playroom.... ON THE SECOND FLOOR! ugh. But, he's been enjoying school, gets excited to see friends at daycare, has favorite toys that he'll play with even when I walk in the room to get him. Just earlier this week I watched him play for a good long while before I caved and said I was gonna go get daddy without him. Boy, he dropped those things so fast and ran at me that everyone laughed. Poor Baby Jason is sick with a cold. At only five months old there isn't anything any doctors can really do other than say, watch him. But what parent in their right mind really enjoys watching their kid 'suffer?' Not much they can do about it now. But C'est la vie.

Anyways, hope you all enjoy and I can't wait for you guys to read the rest. I'm still writing the whole story but when I'm done typing, I'll change the question mark to the proper amount. Thank you!


	6. Caught and Experimented On

CHAPTER 6 - Caught and Experimented On

‘Ow’ was all Bucky first became aware of. What happened? Where was he? Where was-

“Clint,” Bucky cried, his eyes snapping open to see the Sienna upside down and burning. How had he gotten out? He’d been buckled right? So hadn’t Clint. Wait, was Clint still in that mess? He shifted to try and get up with a pained groan but paused at the moan beside him. Turning to look, Bucky say Clint laying face down on the road next to him. Dropping back onto his back, Bucky reached to touch Clint’s blood coated arm. “Clint?”

“We have him,” a voice called a from a short distance away. Bucky tried yet again to sit up. This time he could see a man dressed in a yellow suit, an oddly shaped head piece draping along his back. Clint shifted, turning to see the man as well. “Plus one.”

“Aw... AIM, no,” Clint weakly whined. The man seemed to jerk back to look at them in surprise. Bucky’s mind raced. AIM, it sounded familiar. Wait, Advanced Idea Mechanics. Jesus, that’s who Bucky was trying to stop in Maine. Suddenly a gun went off and Clint whimpered, dropping his head back to the ground without much of a fight. Bucky winced and went to get him when another shot went off, a quick prick on his leg. Angrily Bucky grabbed it. He had just enough time to realize it was a tranquilizer dart before slowly fading back out.

“Transferred smoothly.”

“No side effects... … yet.”

“-easily change shape?”

“-creature unknown.”

“Prep the other one.”

Bucky woke very slowly. Whatever he had been dosed with was leaving his brain very fuzzy. Fuzzy... Was he fuzzy? Fear raced through him even as Bucky looked down at himself. He was still in his human form, boxers covering his privates. His metal arm was missing though. The wolf inside was eerily quite. Groaning, Bucky sat up, briefly wondering what truck had hit him. His mind flashed to the accident.

“Clint!” he called, looking around. He was in a metal cage with a solid metal floor. It was just long enough for him to lay down and if he had his back on one side, his feet, with knees bent, could touch the other. Height wise, he could sit up but not do much more than that. But as Bucky looked about, he could see another cage across from him, but it was empty and Clint was nowhere to be found. “CLINT!”

“Hush it up, freak,” a voice demanded before an electric shock raced through Bucky. He could barely let out a choked cry before it stopped. Breathing heavily, Bucky tried looking around again. That voice had come from somewhere. But no matter how hard Bucky looked, no one seemed to be around.

Time passed oddly for Bucky with nothing to do. He looked to see what type of lock he was working with, but once he touched the lock, another shock went through him. Bucky found out, he could reach out of the cage in all directions. Touching the bars and nothing happen. So the electricity was coming from someone watching him. After what seemed to be an hour or two passed since waking, someone came into the room. The smell of rotting meat permeated the room. Bucky grimaced as the stuff was placed near his cage. The person walked away before Bucky could even get a good look at them. Who had taken him? Hadn’t there been an accident? But Bucky couldn’t remember. He barely remembered the accident.

\----------

“BE CAREFUL! That one’s life is far more important than any of you are worth,” an evil sounding voice snapped, waking Bucky from his daze. He moved to sit up as best he could, watching as two men dressed in yellow dragged a nearly naked man into the nearby cage. A fourth man, dressed in a white lab coat came forward, watching the others. “If all goes right... We’ll make billions.”

The men in yellow backed up, closing the cage as they did. Inside the cage, the mass moaned in pain. It curled up tighter. Bucky ignored the others as he shifted to get a closer look. The wolf in him stirred and sniffed. A feeling of safe and wrongness filled Bucky even as he noticed the mop of dirty blonde hair. Gasping, Bucky tried to reach out, forgetting that the other men hadn’t actually left.

“Clint!” he called. Suddenly, something came down hard on Bucky’s outstretched arm. The soldier flinched, backing into the cage in surprise. The man in the lab coat leaned down, his sickly hazel eyes focusing harshly on Bucky.

“You, Solider, care for this one? Good. Will make the rest of this go much smoother,” the man cooed, a smile on his face that gave Bucky a bad feeling. He shuddered, unable to help himself as the wolf snarled. The man backed away with a laugh. “We’ll give him twelve hours before the next step.”

With that said, the men all left. Bucky waited a few minutes after that before trying to reach out to Clint again. Clint hadn’t uncurled from the groaning mass that the men had dropped him like.

“Clint, come on, ya with me?” Bucky asked. The pile moaned. “Clint, bud, ya gotta look at me!”

Slowly the pile turned. Clint looked absolutely miserable as he tightly held his gut like it was spewing out of him. Bucky winced at the sight. He so badly wanted to go sooth the archer, tell him that everything was going to be okay. The wolf in him whimpered, sniffing the air again. Clint still smelt like earth, bird, and safe, but there was something else. Something different. Bucky cringed, not liking this even as the wolf sniffed again, trying to place that last smell.

“Buck,” Clint whimpered, his voice cracked and raw like he had been screaming. The wolf let out an audible whimper at the sound. Bucky’s lips tightened into a harsh line. AIM had done something to Clint.

“What did they do? Do you know?” Bucky wondered, hating that he had to ask. Clint sobbed, not looking Bucky in the face any more.

“They... They talked about changing my sex.” Clint informed. Bucky reared back in horror. There were trying to turn Clint into a woman? Didn’t that process take months? Or years? How long did they want to do this? “My stomach hurts.”

“God, Clint,” Bucky replied, reaching out to the archer again but getting no where close. Disappointed, Bucky let his arm drop.

“Why? Why us?” Clint whined. Bucky shook his head. He had no idea. It made no sense. They hadn’t pissed off...

“Jesus, it’s my fault,” Bucky blankly told the archer, the memory coming back to him now. Clint looked to him questioningly. “That mission in Maine was attacking an AIM lab.”

“What were they doing?” Clint moaned, trying to uncurl but it hurt too much. Grimacing, Clint tried to hit his pained face from Bucky. Not that Bucky didn’t already know, but the archer didn’t want to see the guilty face.

“We thought animal experiments but, people in the nearby towns started disappearing,” Bucky explained. Clint coughed, groaning and curling up again.

“The people were the animals?” Clint guessed. Bucky frowned. It could have most likely been true. Explained why the wolf bite had changed him. Whatever AIM had done to that person, transferred to him.

“Sam was looking over the information when I ran,” Bucky replied. Clint shook his head.

“How did AIM track you if the others couldn’t?” Clint muttered, mostly to himself but Bucky was beginning to wonder that himself. He shrugged. It wasn’t like AIM had gotten him and placed a tracker on him or anything. And if there was, any of the others must have noticed. Or Tony. Or the government.

“The changes to one’s DNA to turn you into animals gives off a distinctive aura, if one knows to look for it,” the same voice from before called. Both Clint and Bucky tensed. It was the man in the lab coat. Bucky looked to the man with an evil growl. The wolf’s hackles raised.

“Hasn’t been twelve hours,” the soldier spat out, not wanting Clint to suffer any more. The man laughed.

“Indeed, but, Mr. Barnes, we need to know what animal you are,” the man responded. Bucky couldn’t help but go pale. Even Clint looked astonished by the man knowing Bucky’s name. “That metal arm of yours is a very noticeable clue. And the rest is readily available online. Your travel companion is another story. We’re having some difficulty in figuring out the true identity without getting a back trace put on us.”

“Fuck you,” Clint growled out darkly. If this guy knew he had two ‘Avengers’ then this was going to end much worse than one thought. The man laughed.

“Oh no. Not me. You’ll be fucking someone else,” he called, his gaze shifting from Clint to Bucky with a leer. Bucky twitched to look at the archer. This was not going to be good. “Now, Mr. Barnes, be a good boy and come peacefully.”

“Good luck with that,” Bucky snorted. The man sighed.

“Okay, but understand. I did ask nicely.” Pain raced through the soldier as the electric shock constricted his muscles. This was much stronger than the shocks he had gotten before. It wasn’t long before he blacked out.

The next thing Bucky knew, he was tossed into freezing cold water. Without his other arm, Bucky was hard pressed to keep himself above the water. Spinning, Bucky caught a quick flash of a bunch of men in lab coats watching him as they wrote down things into their papers. Spitting and cursing, Bucky tried his best to move toward the platform the were on. Thankfully, they allowed him too. Once he touched, hands suddenly snatched him up. Disoriented and tired, Bucky found himself forced to follow.

“Water animals out,” the guy from the cages noted as Bucky passed. From now on, he was Stupid Lab Guy. No... That sounds bad. SLaG? Eh... Whatever, Slag.

“No shit,” Bucky gasped out. Slowly, the man leaned into Bucky’s face.

“Onto flying,” he said with a smile. Bucky frowned. If tossing him into water proved that he wasn’t aquatic, then how-

“NO!” Bucky cried, rearing back and trying to fight in his still tired state. Thankfully, his bastardized serum gave him more pull than the two men holding him could handle. He pulled free, stumbling only slightly before going to run. The wolf in him, twisting him to head toward Clint’s scent. Bucky hardly got down the hall when an ear piecing whistle sounded. The wolf in him cowered, trying to howl over it but it didn’t work. It was hard to focus on anything. Dropping to his knees, Bucky grabbed at his head, trying his hardest to block the noise with only one hand. But the whistle didn’t stop. Slowly, in an agonizing pace, Bucky felt himself change over to his wolf form. Once fully changed, the whistle stopped.

“A wolf. Interesting,” someone said behind Bucky-wolf. He whined, tucking his tail between his legs. Turning, Bucky-wolf noticed Slag was right there. The wolf stumbled away, fearing that the whistle would come back. Slag laughed. “Bring him back to his cage. If he tries to shift back, use the dog whistle.

‘Dog whistle? A DOG WHISTLE?’ Bucky couldn’t help but think. He was taken down by just that? How humiliating. The wolf didn’t want to deal with that noise again, so it stayed in control, forcing Bucky to watch as he behaved all the way back to the cage.

“Buck?” Clint gasped out, trying to move to get at the wolf. Bucky-wolf whined, moving so Clint’s hand passed gently through his fur before being forced into his cage. Once the door closed, Bucky tried to shift back but stopped at the quick sharp whistle. “Bucky?”

Whining, Bucky-wolf looked to the guard that held a small silver whistle in his hand. Clint followed the gaze. The archer frowned for a moment, trying to place what it was. Then it dawned on him.

“A fucking down whistle?” the archer cried. A few of the guards laughed. The one holding it quickly brought it to his lips and blew. Bucky-wolf’s head dropped, his ears flattened and his one foreleg covered his muzzle. Clint glanced at the wolf before angrily glaring at the guard. “Alright! Enough!”

The guards laughed, stopping the whistle. In one stride, the one holding the whistle looked down at Clint.

“Remember this. Any issues and I’ll blow his eardrums.”

\----------  
I missed a week... Nearly missed this week... Ugh. Posting right now on my seven year anniversary with my amazing husband. So thankful that we have each other. It means so much.

Darius is well. A pain in the butt, but when is he not. Baby Jason is being a baby, like he's supposed to. But not much new going on.

Hope you all enjoyed!


	7. Rescue?

CHAPTER 7 - Rescue?

Clint was taken away again, roughly around the twelve hours that Slag said. By that time, he had mostly been able to uncurl himself. Even though Bucky was in his wolf form, Clint had talked and talked. Bucky very quickly noted that the archer refused to mention the Avengers names directly. Steve became Sean. Sam became Stan. Tony was Tommy. Thor was Tim. Bruce ended up being Rob for some reason that Bucky couldn’t come up with. Natasha turned into Nikki and Wanda turned into Wendy. Vision was of course just Jay.

The stories were great. Most from before Bucky arrived into the Avengers’ lives. But a few were not. They were even better, because it showed a different perspective on what happened. Bucky wished he could have asked what had actually happened to the archer when he had first been taken. Clint’s shirt had ridden up at one point and Bucky didn’t notice any scarring or bandages that showed anything done. Didn’t making him female involve surgery?

Clint didn’t return for a long time. Raw meat was delivered to Bucky twice more. He still didn’t touch it. Surprisingly enough, the wolf didn’t want any of it either. No, the wolf wanted Clint back. Sleep ended up overcoming Bucky before Clint got back. It seemed that when he closed his eyes, Clint wasn’t there. But then he opened them and Clint was there. In only boxers.

“Woof,” Bucky-wolf called out. Clint winced but turned to look. Bucky-wolf tilted his head, questioningly. Sniffing the air, the wolf could tell that whatever change had started was now complete. It still couldn’t place the change, it just knew that Clint was different. Not just earth, bird and safe. But new.

“Hey...” Clint groaned. He shifted a bit to show his gut. Things still looked completely normal. But Bucky knew that wasn’t true. Clint was changed. “Still looking male, down there.”

Clint chuckled lightly at his own words before grabbing his gut. There was still pain there, but AIM had never actually cut him open. Just injected him with various serums. Most of them burned through his system, made his gut hurt like his insides were shifting but a few cooled his body like an ice bath. Slag had seemed please with whatever was happening but Clint only felt some gut pain. Bucky whined, unsure how to let Clint know that something about him had changed.

“I’ll be fine. It’s fine,” Clint soothed, just before a pain raked through his gut. The archer curled up in pain but didn’t make a sound. Bucky-wolf got to his paws, wishing he could call out. But then he heard something. A whine. High pitched but far away. He knew that sound. As it drew closer and louder, Clint perked up. “Iron Man?”

The door to the room blew open, tossing the guard who blew the dog whistle with it. Clint tried sitting up as the Iron Man suit stepped into the room, JSC agents filing out behind him, their guns ready and quickly trained on Clint and Bucky. Iron Man didn’t even look their way, his gaze drifted over the cages.

“Tony,” Clint breathed out, shocked. An agent moved closer, waving his gun slightly at Clint as if daring the archer to do something. The wolf snarled, not liking how any of this was going. Iron Man finally looked down and immediately shifted to block the cages from the agents. That got a few agents to shift closer to him, ready to shoot.

“Woah! Woah, they’re innocents!” Tony’s electronic voice called, the suit trying to shift between the agents and the cages. When it was in the way of the agents, there was a series of clicks and whistles that echoed through the room until Tony stepped out of the back. He moved toward Clint’s cage but was stopped by one of the agents.

“Boss, one is identified as ex-Agent and Avenger, Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye. He recently escaped house arrest. The other is a stupid dog,” the agent reported. Tony scoffed.

“HEY! No, he’s not!” Clint cried, shifting to get up more before a jolt of pain made him curl up with a groan. Tony quickly shifted past the agent to drop to his knees and stare at Clint better. Like Bucky, Tony couldn’t see anything physically wrong with the archer. If Tony didn’t know Clint better than he did, one might assume Clint just had a really bad stomach ache.

“Dude,” the genius muttered, surprised over having Clint actually running away from his set upon terms. Clint had promised he wouldn’t. Then the archer leaned closer, dropping his head on the bars.

“It’s Bucky. You have to help,” the archer whispered to Tony, his eyes fearful and sad. Tony winced, looking to Bucky-wolf for a moment. Bucky-wolf tilted his head, knowing better than to change in front of all these people. With a deep breath, Tony stood, turning to the agents.

“I want these two brought to my tower, along with all the research. Now!” Tony demanded. The agent who had spoken to him before paused. Clint and Bucky could assume that this agent must be the one in charge.

“You don’t have that kind of authority,” the agent grunted. Tony chuckled and Clint couldn’t stop a smile from forming. When had authority ever stopped Tony Stark before?

“Just skipping a few steps. You’ll bring them in, read they were both experimented on and ask me for help. Then, I’ll want them in my lab, with all the notes. So... Lets not waste that time in case whatever happened can be reversed, quickly and find out if anything is contagious,” Tony hotly replied. Clint snickered, moaning as it caused him pain. Even Bucky tried to crack a wolfish smile. The agent said nothing in response but did nod his head. After a quick look at the cages, much to Tony’s chagrin, Clint and Bucky ended up being transported inside them.

\----------

“Did you seriously loophole the agents on site?” Rhodey greeted as the jet landed and Tony stepped out, having actually ridden with them to make sure Clint and Bucky-wolf made it safely to the tower. The genius snorted at his long term friend but turned as Bucky’s cage was removed from the jet. Bucky-wolf couldn’t help but prowl and turn back to the jet, trying to look for Clint. Rhodey paused, confused as Bucky was rolled past. “A wolf?”

“Supposed,” Tony retorted as the next cage came out with little fan fair. Rhodey looked up, waiting for another dangerous wild animal but cussed as soon as he saw who it was. Tony didn’t even spin to look.

“Clint?” the injured man called. Clint looked up sharply before a half smile formed. The flight had done little to relieve pressure in his gut. And the agents refused to give pain medication, citing that it might interfere with the chemicals AIM had given him. Neither Tony or Clint could argue with that.

“Hey, Rhodey. You doing okay?” the archer asked, trying to hide how much pain he was in. Rhodey snorted, looking the situation over with a critical eye, turning to follow the cage as he was walked past.

“Apparently better than you,” Rhodey replied. Clint smirked as his cage paused just before the hall. Rhodey stopped, glancing back at Tony who gave a dismissive wave.

“Bring them to my lab. FRIDAY will show you the way,” Tony ordered, not even glancing at Clint after the archer’s cage came into the tower. Clint winced but said nothing back. The wolf let out a chuffing noise that almost made it sound like he was annoyed. Tony waited until the agents were out of range before rounding on his friend. “I know you can contact Steve.”

“What?” Rhodey cried, his voice trying to sound offended. But both men knew it wouldn’t work.

“Please, FRIDAY told me she encrypts your messages. You need to tell him to get here,” Tony demanded. Rhodey’s eyes narrowed. Tony quickly realized how his statement sounded but refused to back down now.

“What else does FRIDAY tell you?”

“Don’t. Not now. I need Steve,” Tony stressed. Rhodey frowned. Groaning, Tony moved in closer to speak even softer. “Clint told me that the wolf is Bucky. I need Steve.”

“Oh... Okay. Uh...” Rhodey responded, shocked. He totally hadn’t expected that to be the response. Tony nodded, sure that Rhodey had gotten the genius’s point now. “How?”

“Their Wakandan jet can land on the roof. I built a holo cover on it a while ago. No one will know,” Tony explained. Rhodey nodded this time. Okay, this was happening. Tony nodded again before stalking down the hall to go to his lab. The agents were taking a bit too long for his liking.

“Shit,” was the last thing the genius heard before he got in his elevator. Tony arrived in his lab to notice the JSC agents standing in the hall. The doors to the lab were closed. Seeing this, he raised an eyebrow.

“What happened?” he snapped, to annoyed with them to actually investigate himself. An agent turned to him.

“The wolf... Got out,” one stammered, pointing to the lab. Tony frowned and looked through the glass panes to see that Bucky-wolf was indeed out of his cage and prowling near Clint’s cage in a highly protective manner. Sighing, Tony moved to the frightened group of ‘highly’ trained agents.

“Jesus. Get out of here,” Tony growled. Most of the agents complied but the one from the site who had argued with Tony and two more turned to watch Tony. Tony glared at them. “I have safety protocols I can enact. But I want you gone.”

“Ross will be informed of this,” the lead agent boldly stated. Tony waved a dismissive hand. Ross will see his point of view when he comes.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Heard it all before. Save us time and shoo,” Tony snipped, really wanting to get into his lab to check over Clint and maybe even Bucky. The agent let out a soft growl before turning and leaving. Once they were out of sight, Bucky-wolf paused in his pacing. Clint reached a hand through the bars of his cage to pet him. Sighing, Tony moved to the doors. “FRIDAY, let me in.”

“Boss, I feel I must mention the dangerous creature that waits inside,” the AI reported. Tony snorted.

“Yeah, no shit,” he said under his breath but steeled his resolve. “Let me in.”

“Yes, Boss. Medical shall be on stand-by?” FRIDAY inquired. Tony let a hysterical laugh but didn’t reply as he entered his lab. Bucky-wolf tensed but otherwise didn’t move. Clint glanced up with a soft smile.

“FRIDAY, enable ‘Screw Ross’ program,” Tony ordered. Clint snorted as FRIDAY agreed.

“Seriously?” the archer couldn’t help but ask. Even the wolf let out a snorting like breath. Tony shrugged.

“Stays off government sites. Everything is saved on my private server and Ross knows not to bother me,” Tony called, moving to the cage. Bucky-wolf snarled at him but didn’t move to attack. Tony paused a moment before continuing, trying to not admit that he was terrified of what could happen.

“Buck,” Clint hissed. Growling as Tony opened the cage, Bucky-wolf backed off. Slowly, Clint inched his way out. He was mostly out when the doors opened again.

“’Kay, Steve’s on his way,” Rhodey reported, entering into the lab with a distracted air. Clint winced, having shifted in the wrong way.

“No,” groaned a new voice. Everyone turned to see Bucky was back to normal and very noticeably naked. Thankfully he was crouched down so no one could really see much of anything. Clint moved to get closer to him but Bucky shook his head. “No Steve.”

“Too late. He’s coming,” Tony snipped, not caring at all what Bucky wanted. Bucky looked up to glare at the genius but Tony shook his head with a sigh. “No, don’t. I don’t care what happened between you two and between me. This is a whole group issue. I need all the facts, not half the damn tale.”

“Tony,” Clint whined, still not having gotten off the floor. Tony looked down before holding a hand out to help the archer up. Clint gladly took it but as he straightened, he cried out, releasing Tony and dropping back down. Tony jumped back, scared that he had injured his friend. Bucky was there in a flash, shifting his body to protect Clint from both Tony and Rhodey.

“Jesus,” Tony muttered, looking the archer over yet again. There was nothing that could be spotted. But everyone knew that Clint would claim a gunshot was just a paper cut in his effort to show he wasn’t in pain. But actively crying out? No, that was new.

“What the hell happened to you?” Rhodey cussed, shifting himself to sit on a nearby chair. Clint groaned, still not fully steadied.

“Mentioned sex change or some shit,” the archer mentioned with a shake of his head. Both Tony and Rhodey paled. Bucky shifted to help Clint relax into him, the archer covering his still naked form. Clint shook his head. “Don’t think it worked.”

“Your scent changed,” Bucky grumbled. Clint hummed in confusion but didn’t look up. Tony frowned, wondering how long the two had been together for Bucky to notice that. Rhodey shook his head with a sigh. This was getting a bit to messed up for what he was used to. “Something is different. Sweeter, or something.”

“Fuck me,” Rhodey called. He slowly got up and moved to the door before pausing. Maybe he shouldn’t walk away just yet. If Clint was hurt, and Bucky was already this protective of the archer... Tony might be in danger. Rhodey turned back around. “What did they do?”

“A whole shit ton of injections that made my gut hurt something fierce but that’s about it,” Clint explained, mentally wondering if he ever lost track of time and they did something else to him. But there was no scarring like he had surgery or anything. So it made no sense. Tony shifted to his main table, glancing back at Clint for a moment.

“FRIDAY, bring up AIM’s most recent entries. I need to see them,” the genius demanded. Immediately, a holo screen appeared with a bunch of hard to understand notes. Tony quickly scanned through it all, not speaking to the others as he translated the science.

“So, you’re obviously still hurt. But, what does it feel like?” Rhodey wondered, focusing on Clint. It was a very private question but, knowing that may help figure out what happened. Clint shrugged.

“Like my insides have been rearranged,” Clint retorted. Rhodey opened his mouth in confusion. That wasn’t what the man had considered to hear. “Been tortured enough to notice shit like that.”

“That’s just wrong,” Rhodey grumbled with a grimace. Clint snorted. He forgot how much Rhodey was actively involved in. Even getting out of the spy business, Clint had been kidnapped and tortured a few different times. Not wanting to get into that anymore, Rhodey focused on Bucky. “And you?”

“I got turned about two weeks ago. A wolf bit me,” Bucky answered. Tony stilled.

“So, I’m missing info?” he asked. Bucky winced knowing what was coming next. Tony shifted to stare at Clint and Bucky. “Does Steve have it?”

“Steve doesn’t... Or didn’t know about me being a wolf,” Bucky mumbled as he mentally wished that Steve would never learn about it. Clint shifted to place a hand on Bucky’s arm. Unconsciously Bucky leaned into the touch.

“I didn’t mention that, so he still shouldn't know,” Rhodey soothed. Bucky nodded. At least something was going his way.

“How?” Tony demanded, ignoring the rest of it. Bucky looked up at the genius, his eyes flashing in anger. Tony frowned but otherwise didn’t react. “How did the wolf find you?”

“Didn’t find me so much as ran into me and fought me,” Bucky snorted. “The local villages reported a bunch of people going missing. Steve wanted to investigate, seeing as the JSC wasn’t gonna do it. Once there, we found the AIM lab on the outskirts of a town. At first we... I thought they were just messing around with actual animals but... I’m betting most of those missing people were the animals.”

“Fuck. My life used to be so normal,” Rhodey swore, shaking his head. Clint snorted, mentally agreeing. S.H.I.E.L.D business was nothing like this. Things only got strange for him when Thor landed in New Mexico.

“Honey bear, you know you love it,” Tony jokingly cooed at the man. Rhodey huffed as he moved back to sit down again, his legs beginning to really bother him. Bucky cracked a small smile. No one could have seen their lives turning into this. Hell, Bucky would have committed anyone who said he’d wake 70 years in the future with his brain scrambled and a missing arm. Tony turned back to the notes he had pulled up from before. “Welp, none of this makes sense yet. Gonna be a while, specially without Bruce.”

“Still can’t find him?” Clint wondered. He’d spend too long avoiding information. Being retired meant not involving himself with the Avengers. Tony chuckled.

“Oh, I found him. Just giving him space.” Everyone looked at Tony in varying levels of surprise. Tony frowned, looking them all over. “Oi, I can respect privacy.”

“Since when?” Rhodey and Clint asked at the same time. Bucky chuckled as Tony pouted at his friends. Clint went to laugh as well but stopped with a groan. Tony frowned. How much pain was Clint in if he was outwardly showing signs of pain? Rhodey must have wondered the same thing cause he traded a look with the genius.

“Boss, a jet is landing on our roof,” FRIDAY reported. Tony frowned.

“That was fast. Let them in and mask it from Ross,” Tony demanded. FRIDAY called out a disappointed affirmation.

“She’s just as sassy as JARVIS,” Clint noticed. Tony shrugged.

“Most of her programming is based on JARVIS’s code,” the genius replied. Clint nodded, understanding the underlying fact that Tony missed his original AI. People tended to forget that JARVIS was Tony’s main source of companionship before the Avengers.

“BUCKY!” came Steve’s worried cry from outside the lab doors. Rhodey and Tony turned to see not just Steve was there but Natasha, Sam, Wanda and Vision also had come. The doors opened and Steve rushed to Bucky but as Steve got closer, Bucky couldn’t help but start growling, his hands tightening on Clint. Clint tensed at it.

“Steve! Stop!” the archer called, holding his hands out as if he was Wanda and could magically stop the Captain. Thankfully the action worked. Steve stopped on a dime, confused as all heck.

“What-” Steve began.

“Bucky, it’s okay. Calm down,” Clint soothed, turning to look up at the still growling soldier. Tony’s eyebrows rose before Rhodey stepped in, placing a gentle hand on Steve’s chest.

“Steve, maybe back up a bit,” the Army man suggested. Steve glanced at Rhodey before focusing on Bucky.

“But-”

“Steve!” Sam ordered, quickly getting the tension in the room from the three other ‘original’ people in the room. They were missing something. Sadly the sound of Sam’s order had Steve jump a bit, moving the Captain only maybe an inch closer to Clint and Bucky. In a flash, Clint was pushed back and Bucky leaped into his wolf form, snarling viciously at Steve. Shocked, the Captain stumbled back.

“What?” Steve muttered as Clint painfully jumped onto Bucky-wolf’s back to hold him down. Not that it would work well, but still the archer had to try. Tony shifted as well, ready to get in the way, his armor already beginning to form around him. Rhodey also took a step between the wolf and the newcomers.

“Jesus,” Sam sighed.

“Bucky, STOP!” Clint demanded. Steve stepped back again, getting himself nearly to the door of the lab. The further he got, the calmer Bucky-wolf seemed to get.

“What happened?” Natasha hissed, looking around at everyone as the problems seemed to calm. Clint looked up at her, his face pained but relieved to see her. Natasha frowned.

“Bucky said a wolf had bitten him on your last mission. Since then he’s.... He’s changed,” Clint reported, looking down at the wolf. Bucky-wolf huffed but seemed to calm down. He sat back, Clint slowly sliding off his back.

“It can be passed with just a bite? God, we’re gonna have to get those people. What if they change more?” Sam muttered, his mind racing to figure out how they were going to handle this.

“Send me the info and I’ll pass it onto the JSC. They’ll track ‘em down,” Tony informed. Steve snorted, his eyes roaming over the cages still sitting behind Bucky-wolf and Clint.

“And lock them all up. No thanks,” the Captain snapped. Tony sighed, glancing at Bucky-wolf and Clint. There was no point arguing this with him. Yeah, it sucked that they’d be locked up but it was safer than letting them roam free. Especially since Bucky was proving that the animal instincts were hard to resist.

“Steve, we can’t let them wander around. Especially if whatever happened can transfer this easily,” Wanda soothingly stated. Steve turned to her, his face pained. “I know it’s unfair but, we need to keep people safe. Taking them in and seeing if it can be reversed it the best thing for them.”

Steve looked back to Bucky-wolf who was settling a bit more as Clint had begun to pet his fur. As if sensing someone was looking at them, Clint looked up at the Captain. His mind flashed with what was best to say right now. Sighing, he figured it was best to let it all out.

“Steve, Bucky’s been with me for a few days,” Clint admitted. Natasha and Steve instantly got mad at him for lying to them but stopped when Bucky-wolf snarled at them, flashing his dangerous teeth. “As much as I think Bucky doesn’t understand, he’s displaying a lot of wolf tendencies. A lot of which he can’t control. Those people, depending on the animal, can be highly dangerous and unstable.”

Slowly and looking very painful, Bucky shifted back to being human. As he shifted, Clint moved to get into the soldier’s lap, easily hiding the fact that Bucky was stark nude. When he was done, Bucky looked up at Steve pained and sad. Clint sighed, rubbing his hand against Bucky’s chest.

“Stevie,” Bucky called. Steve went to step closer but Sam and Rhodey moved to hold him back. Bucky fought back his own growl at the Captain before croaking out - “They need help.”

“Getting the rest of the data will help me solve this faster. Please Steve. I’m not your enemy,” Tony begged. Steve glanced at the genius. After a moment, the Captain nodded. They all made a good point. For the sake of those involved and those who could be affected, the JSC would be the fastest way to round up all those poor people.

\----------

And that is this chapter for now. I thank those that commented. It's great to hear from people about this.

Darius is doing good. A pain in the butt cause he does not understand 'inside' voice but that is pretty typical. Can't wait until he learns though. God is it annoying to try and watch TV with him shouting and 'singing' over everything. Subtitles are amazing and totally a parent's best friend. Trust me, this isn't me making fun of them. I'm glad they exist for those that cannot hear, it is important they can enjoy these things as well. Baby Jason is getting a little spit up a few times a day, worrying his parents. It isn't much just there. Personally I hope for them it doesn't get worse but just a little spit up is okay.

Anyways, hope you all enjoy! Might start posting the series I had been working on that is posted on Fanfiction. I rewrote some of it so it doesn't fully follow what is posted. So, try not and spoil the story by heading over there if I post and you want more. Gotta remember that there are differences. Either way. We'll see. Until next time!


	8. Wolf Instincts

CHAPTER 8 - Wolf Instincts

It took most of the rest of the day before the group learned, if Bucky was in the same room as Clint, Steve had to be near ten feet away from either of them for Bucky not to tense or growl at him. If Bucky was away from Clint, Steve could be maybe five feet away. At first, no one could really understand what was going on. But after Clint got sick of not being able to hang with both Steve and Bucky at the same time, the archer looked it up. Wolf hierarchy system was rather easy to understand in the long run as to why Bucky was having issues with Steve. Clint concluded that Bucky’s wolf thought that Steve was an invading alpha, even if Steve wasn’t a wolf.

“This is bullshit,” Bucky moaned, his head in his hands. Steve stood on the other side of the room, his own disgruntled face of agreement. Clint was sitting next to Bucky, a hand on the soldier’s leg. They had also noted earlier that Clint had stopped feeling pained... Or at least in less pain then before so he could once again hide it. Rhodey had placed himself on a chair between Bucky and Steve, his armor set up in an unused corner of the room ready to be deployed in a seconds notice. Wanda and Vision shared the love seat near Bucky and Clint. Sam stood beside Steve and Natasha had placed herself off the the corner of Bucky’s vision as they had also learned being dead behind Bucky unsettled him. Not much different from before but it was worse now. “I want to be near you but... I just can’t stop.”

“It’s okay Buck. We’ll figure this out,” Steve tried to sooth, his own frustration leaking through. Both men were getting a bit rung out from it all. They constantly had to watch their positions and a few times when Clint neared Steve, Bucky hadn’t reacted all that well. So it wasn’t just them who had to watch out. Even Clint was getting upset from it all.

“You know, if it’s a wolf hierarchy thing, why not let you guys spar?” Rhodey suggested. Everyone looked to him in surprise.

“You want them to fight for dominance?” Clint asked quickly understanding what the Colonel meant. Rhodey shrugged as both soldiers thought it over. In a strange way, it made sense. Wolves did that all the time. Having the men fight it out may help the wolf figure out both their place.

“Couldn’t hurt to try,” Steve agreed, looking to Bucky who just nodded in agreement. Since Steve’s arrival in the tower, the soldier had a hard time controlling the wolf and he could hardly relax. But he refused to mention that to anyone. Course, Bucky was pretty certain at least Clint and Natasha... And maybe Wanda, knew that he couldn’t calm down.

“I’ll call Tony. We’ll have our suits on stand-by in case it gets ugly,” Rhodey said.

“I have already reported to Boss. He agrees that sparring could help. Boss is already heading down the training room. Shall I order the War Machine armor down as well or will you be wearing it?” FRIDAY reported in a questioning tone. Rhodey glanced at the armor.

“Send it down,” he decided. Bucky stood, fighting hard to not growl at Steve now that the man was only inches closer. Steve must have noticed cause he stepped back.

“Let’s do this,” the soldier stated, focusing on Steve. The Captain nodded his head in return.

It didn’t take long for everyone to meet down in the training room. Bucky and Clint had taken the elevator with Natasha, Wanda and Rhodey. Sam and Steve took the stairs with Vision trailing after them. Everyone stopped off in the weapon room to gear up as a just in case but it was unanimously decided that only Tony and Rhodey would get close to Bucky if he went to far. But the others needed to be ready to help Steve if the Captain couldn’t get away in time.

“FRIDAY, be ready with those tranqs,” Tony called, checking over last minute issues. Clint was placed in the rafters of the room, far enough away that Bucky’s wolf seemed to think he wasn’t there but close enough to help if needed. He had his bow ready along with a quiver of tranq arrows designed for Bruce and ironically Steve, and now Bucky, in mind. Rhodey was in his suit, standing at the edge of the mat, ready to move. Natasha, Sam, Wanda and Vision all stood a bit further away but still close enough to help. FRIDAY must have sent Tony an agreeable message through the suit as the genius stepped between the two super soldiers. “No maiming, no killing. And certainly, no biting.”

Bucky paled a little at that. Would he be able to stop himself if it came down to it? Maybe this whole thing was a bad idea. Sadly, the wolf inside was not going to back down without this fight. Tony looked between the two men before backing up to stand on the other side of the mat than Rhodey. As soon as the suit left the mats, Bucky lunged forward.

Even without his metal arm, Bucky was a force to be reckoned with. Steve readied himself for a body tackle but instead, Bucky feinted left, then punched Steve with such force that Steve stumbled back a few steps. Before he could recover, Bucky brought his leg up and slammed Steve in the chest. Again, Steve stumbled back. This time, Steve recovered faster and was able to catch the spin kick that Bucky started. Spinning with the motion, Steve tossed Bucky a small distance away. Bucky landed on his back with a huff.

“Jesus,” Sam muttered from the sideline. “He’s gonna kill him.”

“No, Steve is too defensive. An alpha wolf would be fighting just as hard as Bucky,” Natasha noted, her eyes narrowing as Bucky got to his feet. Steve again readied himself for an attack. Nodding, Bucky charged again, this time he actually went for the body slam. His arm wrapped around Steve, lifting the other man into the air. Using a move that was similar to one in a wrestling match, Bucky shifted to slam Steve face first into the mats. Tony shifted forward as Bucky then spun himself around to place a knee on the back of Steve’s neck.

“Yield,” he growled. Steve shifted as if to fight but paused when Bucky pressed down harder. The soldier growled again, “Yield!”

“I give,” Steve finally gasped out, tapping a hand onto the mat. Sighing, Bucky got up. Steve turned around and before he could even attempt to get himself up, Bucky offered a helping hand. Looking up, Steve noticed the relaxed smile on his friend’s face. Giving a chuckle of surprise and joy, Steve took the offered hand and got up. Once up, Bucky pulled him into a hug.

“Fuck, Stevie. That...” Bucky started. Steve snorted.

“Glad it worked,” the Captain replied.

“That’s it!? No attempted murders? No out of controlness?” Tony squawked, almost pissed. He had totally been looking forward to stopping Bucky. Behind him, Clint parkoured his way down to the mats. Bucky and Steve simply glanced at him, neither moving. But as the archer drew closer, Steve glanced at Bucky. “HA! HERE IT COMES!”

“Bucky, stay there,” Clint commanded. Bucky frowned even as Clint focused on Steve. “Steve, come here.”

Steve glanced at Bucky unsure if that was wise decision after what had just taken place. The solider simply nodded his head toward Clint. Bucky couldn’t help but agree that this was a good plan. They needed to make sure it was all good. Hesitating a bit more, Steve turned and slowly made his way toward Clint. Halfway there, Bucky got anxious for a moment and shifted his weight. Steve paused, watching him.

“It’s fine,” Bucky promised, already sensing the wolf backing down. Tony moaned and everyone shot him a nasty look. “You might not be.”

Tony backed away and said nothing after that. Steve let out a soft chuckle before continuing on. When Steve got maybe three steps away from Clint, Bucky had to turn away. The wolf was getting antsy. Even after just defeating Steve, the wolf was not pleased the Captain had gotten close to the archer.

“Bucky,” Clint chastised. With a light blush to his cheeks, Bucky turned back. Steve sighed and took the remaining steps to Clint. Bucky tensed a bit, the wolf snarling in his head but otherwise seemed to have control over it. Clint grimaced at the sight and just watched Bucky for a moment. After that moment, Bucky nodded. Clint sighed but knew he needed to find the line. “I’m sorry. But, we need to push this.”

“How?” Steve cautiously questioned. Bucky frowned, watching the archer carefully. Clint sighed, hanging his head.

“Hug me.”

“What?” everyone asked at the same time. Clint flushed a bit but held his ground. This was going to be the best proof that Bucky’s macho display was over.

“Hug me,” the archer insisted. Steve glanced back to Bucky, who seemed to be glaring daggers at Clint. “Look, the wolf has gotten really protective of me. We need to make sure, without a doubt, that the wolf doesn’t think Steve is a threat, to him or me.”

“Honestly, Legolas? Just seems like you want a super soldier hug,” Tony chuckled. Bucky turned and snarled at the genius. Tony raised his hands in a placating way, though considering the blasters were now aimed at Bucky, no one really thought it’d work. “Dude!”

“Tony, stop egging him on,” Rhodey grunted. Tony pouted. But said nothing in response. Steve just stared at Bucky even as the soldier turned back to look at him. Seeing Steve watching him, Bucky rolled his eyes and nodded. With a huff, Steve turned and gave Clint the fastest hug in the history of hugs. No one spoke for a moment. Then...

“Fucking seriously Stevie? Is this pushing my edge or yours?” Bucky snapped. Rhodey couldn’t help his snort of laughter. Wanda hid her mouth behind her hand while Vision stared down at her curiously. Natasha had a small smirk on her face, the indication that she was close to laughing as well. Sam burst out one large barking laugh. While Tony just cackled, nearly falling over with the force of his laughs. Steve blushed, looking away from both his friends. Rolling his eyes, Clint jumped and draped himself all over Steve’s back. Steve stumbled, surprised at the assault and shifted to hold Clint a bit better. Bucky let out a huge laugh at Steve’s panicked face.

“Well, that decided that,” Steve called, moving to drop Clint back onto the ground. The archer smiled. Everyone tended to forget his time in the circus. He got used to hanging onto different objects that might not be so easy to stay on. With a pleased sigh, Clint dropped his head onto Steve’s shoulder, as if falling asleep.

“I don’t know, this is kinda comfy,” Clint joked, his eyes flicking up to Bucky to make sure this was okay. Steve’s eyes widened it what seemed like horror as the Captain realized he was trapped with Clint clinging to him like a monkey. Bucky snorted before a grin broke out on his face. He ran at Steve. Steve let go of Clint to hold his hands out to stop him but Bucky simply jumped, twisting in the air to land into Steve’s arms, bridal style. He then quickly wrapped his arm around Steve’s neck, holding himself in place. Clint chuckled even as Steve gave his childhood friend a confused look. Bucky just smiled. “Told ya.”

“Well, that’s interesting,” Natasha called, her smirk growing. Clint looked up at her and noted something curious.

“Wanna see if he can hold the whole team?” he laughed. Steve tried to turn to him, panicked.

“No! No! Lets not test this,” the Captain cried, trying to drop Bucky to the ground. But Bucky was too strong and was able to hold himself up with only one arm. His legs dropped a little, but with the tightening of his gut, Bucky basically planked himself. Giving in to the humiliation of his friends dangling on him, Steve returned his arms to hold Bucky and then he walked out of the gym. Everyone slowly followed, laughing the whole way.

\----------

Life in the tower seemed to settle a bit after that. Just for shits and giggles, Bucky and Clint refused to let go of Steve for really anything. At first, Steve thought it was weird to have them hanging off of him. But he got used to it real quick.

“Hey, uh. How is tonight gonna work?” Steve asked as it grew closer and closer to night time. He shifted in his seat to get more comfortable with his friends hanging off of it. Clint curled up a bit tighter onto him. Then realized what Steve meant. He pulled back.

“That’s going to far for me,” Clint snorted. The Captain laughed and pulled the archer back onto him, making Clint laugh again as well.

“Yeah, a bit to far for me as well,” Bucky chuckled. Steve pulled on his childhood friend before he could even attempt to move away. Bucky laughed and pushed back against Steve as if trying to struggle away.

“What? You don’t feel the love?” Steve cackled. Bucky renewed his efforts to get away and on the other side, Clint started to ineffectively try as well. Steve laughed at it, putting more force into holding Bucky while cutting back some on Clint. Clint looked over to the room and spotted Natasha smirking at the pile.

“Nat! Help! I’m trapped by a super soldier!” Clint called, laughing as he did so. Natasha snorted, taking a sip of some fruity alcoholic drink that Rhodey had made for her.

“That’s one problem I wouldn’t mind,” she retorted. Steve and Bucky paused for a second, turning to stare at her. Without Steve actively holding him down, Clint was able to slip out of Steve’s arms. By the time Steve noticed, Clint had already gotten himself halfway across the room. Natasha smiled, holding a hand out to Clint who easily high-fived it.

“Oh, that’s low,” Bucky muttered even though he had a smile on his face.

“You work with what you got. And I got old school mentality from you boys,” Natasha chuckled. Steve glanced down at Bucky, still trapped in his arms. Bucky seemed to take not of this only seconds later. Neither moved.

“Oi! Super soldier love fest? And no one invited me?” Tony cried, entering the room with a tablet (or large phone) in his hands. Steve and Bucky jolted away from each other as if burned.

“Moment ruined,” Sam whispered. Wanda, who was the only one who heard it and understood it, let out a soft chuckle. Vision leaned down to ask her why that was funny and both of them turned to explain.

“Tony, how many times do I have to remind you that not every human touch is sexually based?” Rhodey moaned, putting a hand over his fast. Clint looked to him.

“Well...” The archer started but stopped when Rhodey held up a hand.

“Don’t! What ever you’re gonna say, just don’t. I’ve spent years conditioning him to just this and it’s still too much,” Rhodey complained. Everyone frowned, looking to Tony even at the genius snorted.

“Aw, Honey Bear, you know you love me just as I am,” Tony crooned. Rhodey looked up at him.

“Uh huh, Tony Stank,” the Colonel retorted. The room fell silent as Tony made a face.

“Oh, I have to hear this story!” Sam demanded, shifting to look closely at Rhodey. Rhodey smiled but before he could open his mouth, Tony spoke.

“Remember, FRIDAY helps control your suit. And who owns FRIDAY?” Tony warned. Rhodey laughed lightly and shrugged his shoulders at Sam.

“Sorry dude, gotta stick with the suit,” Rhodey stated. Sam moaned as Clint looked over. Tony had nothing on him anymore. Especially since not only was he retired but the Accords wouldn’t allow him to get back in the game if he was needed.

“Delivery guy messed up Tony’s name,” the archer called.

“OI!” Tony cried, turning to the archer. “How the he.... Natasha!”

“Not me,” Natasha responded. Clint smirked.

“I am a spy too,” Clint mentioned. Tony scoffed. He was going to have to rework the settings on FRIDAY to make sure there was no back door.

“I’m assuming you came up here with a specific reason,” Wanda suggested, moving to a new topic. Tony glanced at her before remembering the reason he came.

“Oh! Yeah. I’ve analyzed some of the tests they did,” Tony announced. Bucky shifted up in his seat.

“And?” he asked.

“Uh. Apparently, AIM wanted to make super soldiers with animalistic traits. Like speed, strength, hearing, that sort of thing. Their first couple tests didn’t go well. The next batch worked for all of a day before it followed Extremis’s footsteps,” Tony explained. Bucky, Steve and Clint paled. That didn’t sound good. “Oh, don’t worry. They fixed that with later batches that.... uh... Didn’t stick either.”

“What happened?” Wanda whispered, not liking the journey of this. Tony shifted suddenly uncomfortable.

“Uh... Like Iceman-” Tony started.

“Names taken,” Clint mumbled. Everyone looked to Clint with varying degrees of curiousness and incredulous looks. The archer shrugged at them. “X-Men already have an Iceman, can’t use it here.”

“Fuck you very much,” Tony growled in annoyance but at least his anxiety had lowered. Clint shrugged again. Natasha elbowed his leg and Clint placed a hand on her shoulder. They both knew he had to calm Tony down. Tony was trying to switch away from the metal implied jokes as currently Bucky was without the metal arm so they wouldn’t really make much sense now. “Anyway, like... Barnes, the... subjects could change forms but most ended in not fully human or animal and died, or they couldn’t change back and lost all humanity after a week.”

“Well, we know Bucky can shift back and forth... Is there anything about that?” Steve wondered even as Bucky muttered ‘Bucky is right here’ beside the Captain. Bucky also pointedly did not point out that the wolf who bit him, died only a few minutes after. Clint glared at him for that.

“There are a few more batches till we got the one that may have infected... Barnes,” Tony answered. Clint snorted, tilting his head to the side at the repeat of Bucky’s last name. Tony glared at him. “Fuck you, Merida! I used the good ones on Capsicle!”

“Boys,” Natasha snapped. Tony and Clint winced. Bucky’s eyes snapped to Natasha and his eyes flashed golden like he was holding back the wolf. Which was true. Since the fight with Steve, this was the first time Bucky felt the wolf try and take control again. Something Natasha did made the wolf not like her. Clint arched an eyebrow at him before looking down at Natasha. Why would the wolf suddenly be mad at her?

“Uh, yeah. So, the one that infected Barnes might be Henry Nordith. A twenty-three year old college student that went missing a few months ago after visiting family in a nearby town. As we all know, he got wolf genes,” Tony mentioned. Everyone nodded.

“Okay, any notes on issues with this batch?” Sam questioned. Tony sighed.

“Yeah, mostly animal traits while even human. Which, we’ve noticed. Long term study had been interrupted by you runaways,” Tony told the group. Thankfully none of the teams seemed bothered by Tony’s term.

“And the bite thing?” Clint asked. Tony shrugged.

“AIM never had anyone get bitten and they were months to years away from even attempting to see if it was possible,” Tony replied.

“So, we don’t know what could happen to me,” Bucky summarized. Tony nodded, wishing he had more of an answer but he wasn’t a geneticist.

“And even if we did know what happened to the other subjects... Your super soldier serum may change the outcome,” Tony sadly pointed out. Bucky nodded, looking down to the ground in dismay. Figuring the topic needed to be changed a bit, Clint looked at Tony.

“Any word on what they did to me?” Clint wondered, rubbing absently at his stomach. Natasha frowned, focusing on him for a moment. There hadn’t really been mention that something had happened to him. This was the first the other group had heard about it. Tony sighed.

“Not much. You are their first test subject and as you told us from what you remembered, they were trying to change your gender,” Tony answered. The room burst into an uproar, everyone but Bucky, Rhodey, Tony and Clint speaking at once. Tony ignored it and just raised his voice over them. “Again, they would have just started the observation part that night and moved on to check out Barnes when...”

“When you and the JSC burst through,” Clint finished, the noise dying down. Tony nodded. “So, both of us have to be put on watch so we can notice anything different or going wrong.”

Bucky suddenly flushed, remembering what he and Clint had learned in the Inn that first night. He really didn’t want Tony checking out his junk. Clint noticed and winced, giving him a sympathetic look but not speaking up. Natasha’s eyes narrowed at the two. And Sam must have noticed as well.

“What are we missing here?” Sam wondered, pointing between the duo. This time, Clint flushed as well. There was no good way to admit what had been going on between them these past few days. Before they could speak, Wanda suddenly gasped in surprise. Her hands flying up to cover her mouth. Neither man looked at her as everyone traded looks between the three. “What?”

“It’s wolf mating season,” Natasha pointed out, suddenly remembering her own tiny bit of knowledge on wolves. Again, Bucky and Clint said nothing. They both looked to the floor, afraid to see anyone’s faces as they realized what was going on. The room went silent as the others processed this new information.

“Buck?” Steve choked out after a minute. Still, both men stayed silent.

“Holy shit,” Tony cussed as he suddenly got what happened between the two. Both men’s blush turned brighter.

“Don’t wolves have this... Knot thingy?” Rhodey wondered. Clint squirmed a bit. Bucky shifted away from Steve some more. “Oh, you gotta be shitting me.”

“Uh, guys... Wolves also... Mate for life,” Sam added, glancing between the two. Bucky’s and Clint’s eyes snapped up to Sam in surprise. “When Steve got close to Clint, Bucky was protecting his mate.”

That got Clint to spin on his heel and rush out of the room. Bucky dropped his head into his hand in misery. The room again went silent. Steve refused to take his eyes off Bucky, who stoutly refused to look back. For once, Tony didn’t seem all that gleeful or excited by this new scientific discovery. Natasha twisted, looking to see where Clint ran off to. She debated going after him. Sam got up and started pacing the room, feeling bad that he had to mention anything. Rhodey cussed, relaxing a bit into his chair. Wanda looked close to crying and Vision just looked over everyone confused.

“So... Uh... That just happened,” Tony mumbled, breaking the silence. And that was what broke Bucky, who rushed off before even Steve could attempt to catch him.

“I wish my life was normal again,” Rhodey complained. Sam scoffed.

“True dat.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally figured out this note thing. Rather than putting it with the story. Hee hee.
> 
> Darius is being... Well, Darius. We've been trying to potty train him but he just refuses to do it. My mother in law is planning on doing a three day training technique that she used with Clint but so far we haven't gotten the three day weekend to do it. Just this morning I got up with Darius early and after like half an hour after being down, I smelt something that could have been poop or a fart, so I asked Darius if he pooped. He said no. Ten minutes or so later, I asked again. And again, he said no. When hubby finally got downstairs, running a bit behind to get to work, Darius walked right up to him and went 'Daddy, I went poop.' Yeah... He did that... So, in the end I had to change him. Only for like ten minutes later that he did it again. This time I actually checked him cause I didn't want to sit down and then have to get up and change him. Baby Jason seems to love sleeping all day and his parents haven't seemed to want to keep him awake during the day so he could sleep through the night. Hubby and I have suggested it a few times but, they'll figure it out. Soon.
> 
> Anyways, that's it.


	9. A Truth Revealed

CHAPTER 9 - A Truth Revealed

The rest of that night was the most awkward night in the history of awkwardness. Bucky and Clint locked themselves up in their designated rooms and ordered FRIDAY to not let anyone into them. Even if it was an emergency. FRIDAY countered them by agreeing to asking about the guest and only notifying them of life threatening emergencies. They agreed. Steve and Natasha tried to talk to their respective friends but when shut out, they forced themselves to go to bed. Sadly, the morning turned out to not be much better.

Bucky and Clint still refused to leave their rooms for any reason. In desperation, Steve left trays of breakfast foods outside their doors. When he came back to check on them, they were both empty. So, at least the duo were eating. Tony started going back over AIM’s notes on what they did to every group, as if the notes were suddenly going to change and give out a cure or settle the issue of the guys being fine.

Rhodey ended up leaving after breakfast as this was the longest time Tony had ever enabled the ‘Screw Ross’ program. He needed to explain that things were fine and that Ross didn’t need to come over. Wanda and Vision hid themselves in Wanda’s room, mostly catching up on some things since they had gotten separated. Sam commandeered the couch in the living room and mindlessly watched some educational show on TV. After checking on the secluded members of the team, Steve joined him. Natasha spent her morning working out in the gym.

By lunch time, everyone had at least come out once or twice for food or something... Except Bucky and Clint. After another delivery of food to each of them and finding it empty on his return, Steve at least knew they were still eating. The group respected the guys privacy, especially considering the delicate and very personal information that had sadly been spread to all of them.

So the day passed by rather slowly and boringly. But as days go, it needed to end soon. At dinner time, Steve was a little frustrated when neither man showed up. Wanda and Vision looked highly uncomfortable with it all. Sam refused to look up from his plate and Tony spent a lot of time on his phone/tablet thing. Natasha was the only one who seemed to be taking this all normally.

“I’m gonna need them soon to get baseline stats on them,” Tony grumbled halfway through the meal. He pointedly looked at Steve and Natasha as if they controlled the duo.

“Respect their privacy. FRIDAY will alert us if anything is wrong with either of them. It’s bad enough we learned what we learned,” Natasha pointed out, her voice soft but dangerous. Tony sighed. He hated being the bearer of bad news.

“I’d also like them to look over the lists of doctors I can bring into help,” Tony added. “And we should probably ask Barnes if he wants a new arm...”

“Doubt either of them will enjoy the poking and prodding,” Sam muttered, shoving food into his mouth right after. Tony turned to look out the window in dismay. Everyone ignoring the elephant in the room of giving Bucky his metal arm back. He was dangerous enough with only one arm, never mind two.

“I... I get that. But, in order to fix this... I need to know what is happening to them,” Tony sighed.

“It may have to wait a few days,” Wanda muttered. “I mean... We did all kind of learned about their sex life and apparently Bucky’s attraction to Clint. Personally, I’d be embarrassed and want to hide too.”

“Think the only one who wouldn’t shy away from everyone knowing this is Tony,” Sam said, a soft smile on his face in order to lighten the mood. It worked as the group chuckled, even Tony. “But, Tony does have a point. AIM doesn’t have enough research to say if both of them are safe with these changes. The sooner the tests happen, the better off it will be in the long run.”

“I’ll talk to Buck. See what I can do,” Steve mumbled, not looking up at everyone. Tony turned to Natasha who leaned back in her seat, staring back at him,

“I’ll drag his stubborn ass kicking and screaming,” she promised. Smiles formed on everyone’s faces. Even though they knew she’d actually do it. “Do you want to do it tonight?”

“I’d like to do it as soon as possible, but I think they’d kill us if we bother them so soon,” Tony responded, feeling guilty that he’d have to bother them period. Natasha nodded, proud that Tony wasn’t all gun-ho about doing this. Giving both men time to think about what happened would help their mental states.

Dinner finished in silence. As they all packed up the food for cleaning, Sam suggested a movie but it failed. Wanda and Vision were ‘working on a project’ in Wanda’s room. Natasha wanted to go to the range to work off some more steam. Tony wanted to go back to the notes and that left Steve, who wanted to start mentioning stuff to Bucky. He ended up sitting on the floor outside Bucky’s door. Bucky never replied to him. Steve talked all the way through till the sun began to set before going to bed. Bucky waited maybe an extra thirty minutes before exiting his room.

Sweat was pouring off of Bucky’s skin. His dick was rock hard and throbbing with extreme need. It had hit him yesterday, maybe an hour after hiding in his room. But there was no way he was going to go visit Clint. The day he just had was a pain in the ass. He was so begging to have sex but, he couldn’t go to Clint’s room while everyone was awake. So, he tried to do it himself. But like when Clint was giving him a blow job, it absolutely failed. He just got more and more wound up. Having a nearly day long shower seemed to stave off a lot of the desire after but that wouldn’t last again. At this point, Bucky was lucky he could walk.

“FRIDAY, Clint’s room, please,” Bucky sobbed, falling do the elevator floor.

“I apologize Sergeant Barnes, but Agent Barton has requested to not be disturbed,” FRIDAY reported. Bucky groaned, his head dropping onto his chest. A whine escaped him a moment later. “I shall ask if he’ll allow you entrance.”

A few moments later, the elevator began moving. Bucky keened in joy, trying not to touch himself and make things worse. Seconds later, the door opened to Clint curiously standing there. He took one look at Bucky before cussing. Bucky didn’t even notice when Clint grabbed him. As he was carried to the bedroom, Bucky tilted his head and began desperately kissing Clint’s chin. Clint groaned.

“Buck, why didn’t you come down before this?” Clint asked, dropping him onto the bed. Bucky surged forward and pulled the archer down on top of him. Clint squeaked and tried to protest a moment, trying to get room to pull the clothes off. Ignoring the archer, Bucky began brushing himself all up against Clint. “Jesus, Buck.” Clint pushed away. “God, I’m sorry. I should have remembered.”

Bucky growled, pulling Clint back down onto himself yet again. Clint moaned, shifting his hands to try and get under Bucky’s wet shirt. Bucky growled, tearing both his clothes and Clint’s clothes right off. The effect of that had blood rushing to Clint’s rapidly hardening member. Bucky again growled, this time in a much more seductive way.

Knowing what comes next, Clint attempted to get on top of Bucky but Bucky snarled and flipped the archer so he landed face first onto the bed. Clint grunted when his gut protested against the movement, the first bit of pain he had in a while. Even so, Clint lifted his ass, presenting himself to Bucky. Keening at just the sight, Bucky tried to fight the wolf and attempt to prepare Clint but something struck him. Hawk, Safe, Ready. The wolf lunged Bucky’s body forward and slammed Bucky’s cock right into Clint.

“AH!” Clint cried, mentally noting that while Bucky hadn’t spent the time to prepare him, it didn’t hurt as much as any of the other times. Even if he was stretched, there would have still been some sort of chaffing at the entrance. Bucky must have noticed the same thing, cause he quickly got control over the wolf and paused.

“Clint?” he grunted. Clint shook his head, too turned on now to really think about it. And too guilty that he hadn’t tried to help Bucky out the night before. When Bucky still didn’t move, Clint snapped his ass back into him. Bucky gasped before letting instinct take over. The wolf roughly moved in and out of Clint so hard that the bed was shifting with each bit of movement. Clint whined, begging for more. Far faster than either really wanted, Bucky’s knot slipped into Clint and began swelling. When it became painful, Clint clenched hard.

“FUUUCCCKKK!” Bucky nearly roared, his voice much softer than it had been at the Inn and motel. At the same time, Clint whited out in pleasure. By the time the archer came back to himself, Bucky had already twisted them onto his side. He must have been out a while cause Bucky was lightly petting his arm. “You with me?”

“Yeah,” Clint gasped. He had never had an orgasm so big that he blanked out like he just did. It was kinda scary, yet incredibly awesome! Bucky curled Clint in closer to himself. Clint moaned, shifting and clenching yet again, getting another smaller orgasm from Bucky. Bucky’s soft moan had Clint chuckle. “That good for you?”

“You have no idea,” Bucky mumbled, shifting his head to lay against Clint’s back. “Got worried though. You kinda collapsed underneath me.”

“Best orgasm ever,” Clint panted, totally wanting to try again faster than thirty minutes from now. Bucky chuckled. They laid like that for a few minutes before Clint shifted, trying to get a good look at the soldier. “Guess now we know why you came to me.”

“God... I’m-”

“Don’t. To be honest, I kinda figured it out before. Specially when I looked up information on the knot. But... I didn’t want to say anything in case this was only wolf attraction,” Clint admitted, get quieter as he went. Bucky jerked back, trying not to pull on their tie but also get a good look at Clint’s face.

“What?”

“Well... When I looked up wolves that first night... It wasn’t just the knot that I found. I found the information on the mating season and who the wolves mate with in a pack. An alpha wolf, or leader of the pack, mates with the alpha female. And typically only the alpha female,” Clint explained. Bucky frowned. Clint wasn’t a female... So why did the wolf chose him? “Look, you were already going through so much. I didn’t want to add the mate thing on you.”

“I... Honestly, I don’t know what to say right now,” Bucky stuttered. Clint nodded, figuring Bucky was trying to determine if this was wolf feelings or not. Never mind the fact that it was a lot to process. Not only had Bucky changed forms, gotten a knot on his human dick, and followed some wolf traits... Now he had chosen a mate! Clint shrugged. Best to blow it off now before Bucky tries to tell Clint that it was a wolf thing.

“Least I get mind blowing sex for the next month and a half,” Clint joked. Bucky snorted, placing his head back onto Clint’s shoulder blades. His mind was still racing on what Clint had said. Was this the wolf’s choice? Or did Bucky have a thing for Clint? They ended up not talking for the rest of the knotting experience which lasted ten minutes longer than any of the other times. When it finally did free them, Clint rolled over to look at Bucky face to face. “So... Guess we should talk?”

“Guess so...” Bucky mumbled, unable to determine what to say. Neither spoke. Two minutes passed in absolute silence. As it did, Clint got more and more nervous. Bucky was going to let him down gently... Clint would only have sex with him January through April... And that’s if something didn’t happen to change the wolf’s mind.

“Look at us. Two of the world’s greatest assassins, afraid to talk about feelings,” Clint chuckled. Bucky smirked before sighing. And here it comes...

“To be honest...” Bucky started. “I know we didn’t get to talk, or hang out, or even get to know each other but... I think I might have fallen in love with you in Germany.”

“I get it... Wait, what?” Clint muttered, starting to look away before the words struck him. He turned to look at Bucky amazed. Bucky shrugged.

“I mean, I get I was fighting and running as well but... I saw the shots you made and... It made me look you up when they unfroze me in Wakanda. Those videos of you... Even in crappy phone quality... God...” Bucky admitted. Clint couldn’t help but laugh in part disbelief and part relief. As Bucky continued thinking about those videos and just basically of Clint, he quickly got hard again. He couldn’t stop his groan before dropping his head onto his chest. Clint smiled and moved to rub his leg against Bucky’s cock. Bucky’s moan was so dirty and so loud that Clint’s dick rapidly joined the party. Feeling brave, Clint pushed Bucky onto his back and suddenly began kissing the soldier’s chest. Bucky jerked up, whining when Clint stayed away from his now aching member. “Clint.”

Clint started trailing down a bit to Bucky’s abs. The muscles jerked underneath the archer’s lips. Again, Clint avoided going all the way down. Bucky keened, desperate for Clint to touch him. Clint smiled against Bucky’s skin and jumped past Bucky’s cock and headed down into the soldier’s thighs. Snarling, Bucky reached down to grab the archer. Clint shifted to straddle Bucky’s lower half but came up and kissed Bucky on the lips. Bucky whine again. With an evil glint in his eyes, Clint pounded himself onto Bucky’s twitching cock. Bucky jerked up with a loud gasp. Clint chuckled and waited till the soldier calmed down.

“Don’t move,” he ordered once Bucky stilled. Bucky whimpered. Slowly, Clint began rocking his body back and forth. Bucky gasped and went to jerk up but when he did, Clint stopped moving. “I said, don’t move.”

“Clint!” Bucky whined. Once Bucky was still again, Clint resumed his grinding. He didn’t pick up his pace, just slowly moved back and forth. Bucky’s arm lifted to grab at Clint. Right away the archer froze. Frustrated, Bucky dropped his arm back onto the bed. He arched his back and closed his eyes yet Clint didn’t move. Clint waited about a minute before he started moving again, this time slightly slower than the other two times. Bucky whimpered, desperate. “Clint!”

“Shh,” Clint replied, flicking his hips in a sharp manner. Bucky squealed at the motion. Laughing, Clint did it again, even still he kept the same pace. Groaning in ‘agony,’ Bucky tried his hardest not to move. Even so, his muscles tensed.

Clint moaned, the vibration echoing down to his hole. That’s what did Bucky in. He surged forward, his knot sharply entering into Clint. Before Clint could do anything about it, the knot swelled, rapidly tying them together. Clint clenched, just in time, and with an animalistic cry, Bucky let go. The archer came seconds later, still grinding his best on Bucky. Because Clint kept moving, this orgasm lasted what seemed to be nearly two minutes. When it stopped, both men were desperately sucking in air and trying to calm their racing hearts. Clint looked up at Bucky with a smile. “Holy...”

“Shit.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, hopefully I figured out these note things...
> 
> Darius is doing good. Been a bit annoying the past few days but I think it might be because my hubby and I have like no patience for his normal antics. I don't think he really realized that he missed out on Trick or Treating due to the rain, so... At least we can use his costume for Rhode Island Comic Con this weekend. I got most of our stuff packed and ready to go, including his costumes. But, hubby and I kinda don't want him staying all weekend. We know we can't skip having him go tonight but hopefully father-in-law can get Darius on Saturday. We'll see. Baby Jason is doing good. Don't really like the pediatrician that his parents have, and neither are they. The person keeps suggesting things that other pediatricians have said not to do. It worry some that this person does this as there are likely a lot of first time parents with no one around who recently had a child. I doubt that anything is truly harmful that is suggested but... A lot of it just worries me and makes no sense for Jason's current age.


	10. Scans Must Be Wrong

CHAPTER 10 - Scans Must Be Wrong

Bucky ended up staying the night in Clint’s room. He was rather happy that once the sex had ended, Clint willingly curled himself up against the soldier. Most of the sex that night had been more rounds than any of the other night. It was also good. So good that Bucky almost wanted it to be the next night so he could go at it again. Instead, Bucky just sighed, staring at Clint as the archer still slept on. Lazily he rubbed his hand up and down Clint’s spine and shoulder. After a few minutes of this, Clint let out a pleased moan.

“A guy could get used to waking like this,” the archer chuckled. Bucky smiled, agreeing whole heartedly with Clint. Slowly, Clint looked up at Bucky. “You doing okay after what happened? I know we talked a little about everything, but...”

“Honestly... Could have done without Tony knowing what’s going on between us... But, I would have liked to start something with you... Outside of these wolf feelings,” Bucky admitted. Clint smirked, shifting himself to plant a kiss on Bucky’s lips. Bucky sighed into it, holding Clint down for a longer kiss. When they pulled back, their lips were lightly flushed thanks to their nipping and sucking.

“I was gonna wait till after mating season, but... I’d really like that,” Clint answered. Bucky leaned down for another kiss.

“Excuse me Agent Barton and Sergeant Barnes, but Captain Rogers is looking for Sergeant Barnes and Agent Romanoff is demanding entrance to this floor,” FRIDAY reported. Clint shifted so his head laid against Bucky’s lips. Bucky ignored it and kept kissing the archer.

“Thanks,” Clint called, trying to keep his voice steady. “Tell them we’ll be dressed and ready to meet them in Tony’s lab in twenty minutes.”

“Agent Romanoff has agreed to your response and Captain Rogers... Seemed to take it well,” FRIDAY informed. Clint and Bucky laughed for a minute before Clint slipped himself out of bed. Bucky couldn’t stop the whine that came from his lips after that.

“Hey, don’t worry. We just need to shower,” Clint responded. Bucky huffed but followed Clint to the archer’s bathroom. Having already been naked and FRIDAY having the shower running, the two easily slipped inside. And as much as both men wanted to go again, they simply cleaned themselves and went to get dressed. “Uh...”

Bucky winced. He had forgotten that he had basically shredded the clothes the duo had been wearing. “So...”

“I might have something that can fit?” The clothes he had at the farm had been from older years, when Clint had worn shirts that were larger and baggier than the ones he kept at the tower. When he moved in here, it was... Disconcerting to look at the tight clothes that Steve and Thor wandered around in. Hell, even Tony did tight clothes most of the time. So, Clint changed his apparel to match.

Thankfully, Clint did indeed have something that could fit Bucky. But, both men couldn’t help themselves from just staring at it. It had been part of a joke gift that Tony had gotten for most of the team. But Clint had loved it. And now, it was the only thing in Clint’s entire closet that could cover Bucky’s top half.

“I... Uh...” Clint stuttered. Bucky sighed and grabbed it. Slipping it on without thinking about it any more, Bucky then grabbed the pants that had been laid out. With Clint, they were slightly baggy. On Bucky, they were skin tight. Clint couldn’t help himself from freezing, staring at Bucky’s ass.

“Lets go,” Bucky hissed, his face flushed red when he turned to see Clint staring at him. Clint smiled and they headed out.

\----------

The one good thing about the shirt... Tony spit his coffee all over the room. Steve flushed a brighter red than anyone had ever seen before. Sadly though, Natasha seemed unaffected by the bright purple shirt that read ‘I (heart) Hawkeye’ boldly on the front. Clint chuckled lightly while Bucky focused on the genius.

“Issue, Stark?” Bucky ‘innocently’ wondered. Tony shook his head quickly.

“Nope. No... Things are okay,” Tony choked out. After a quick pounding to his chest, Tony stood, facing the duo straight on, his eyes not even attempting to look down at Bucky’s stolen shirt. A stolen shirt that Bucky was going to be wearing much more. “So... I know you guys ain’t gonna like this but... I need to get some tests done.”

“No problem,” Clint replied, figuring that this was what Tony wanted. Bucky stiffened for a moment. Clint grabbed the soldier’s hand and slowly, Bucky exhaled then nodded.

“Great,” Tony squeaked. “I’m gonna take a blood sample first, and then FRIDAY’s gonna take a bunch of different scans. We may need to do a cat scan or an MR... Never mind.”

“Okay, take away,” Clint called, moving to Tony. Tony raised an eyebrow at Clint willingly going first but instead of talking, just turned to the already set up equipment. With a nod to make sure Clint was ready, Tony inserted the needle and quickly set about drawing the blood he needed. Bucky tensed about the whole thing before forcing himself to look away.

“Bucky?” Natasha wondered. Bucky shook his head. He’ll be fine. This wasn’t a wolf issue, this was a Bucky issue. A moment later, Tony announced he was done with Clint.

“Errol, go stand on that platform and FRIDAY will start the scans. Meanwhile, Six-Million Dollar Man, come here,” Tony ordered. Clint snorted at the name and Tony flipped the archer off. Natasha rolled her eyes at their antics. Bucky moved to be by Tony but everyone could tell he was nervous. Steve shifted to get closer to being in between Tony and Bucky as a just in case. Thankfully, nothing did happen which had everyone breath a sigh of relief. “Now, I ain’t a geneticist, so I’m gonna need you boys to tell me which vetted geneticist can come in. Also... No offense meant here, Robocop, but I have a list of veterinarians as well. Cho will hopefully be able to handle the rest.”

“Veterinarian?” Steve repeated, offended for Bucky’s sake. Tony held up his hands in a placating manner.

“Look, I’m sorry but, Bucky is quite literally half wolf. Cho may be able to look over his human side, but we need a doc for the wolf side,” Tony explained. Steve’s lips tightened into an angered line but he could tell that Tony had a point.

“Boss,” FRIDAY announced before anyone else could say anything. Tony nodded, thinking he was saved by the AI. “You may need to look over some of these scans, now.”

“Uh...” Tony retorted, shifting to his desk. Everyone else traded looks, especially when FRIDAY didn’t put it up on a holoscreen.

“That doesn’t sound good, Stark,” Natasha hissed, her eyes narrowing. Clint was also frowning but was more willing to wait for answers. Tony ignored it all. Bucky shifted to stand near Clint but also not on the scanner. Steve moved to stand by him.

“FRIDAY, run them again,” Tony demanded, his voice weak.

“Tony?” Steve wondered.

“Boss, I’ve scanned Agent Barton five times already,” the AI informed. Tony paled as Clint and Bucky exchanged a really worried look.

“Tony, what’s going on?” Clint hissed, trying not to show how fearful he sounded. Tony glanced up at the archer and loudly swallowed. He looked like he wanted to curl up into a hole and die rather than answering.

“Uh.... AIM succeeded,” the genius whispered. Steve and Bucky frowned. They even had a hard time hearing what Tony said.

“What?” Clint asked, a large frown on his face. Tony cleared his throat.

“AIM... They... Succeeded,” Tony repeated loud enough for everyone to hear.

“But-” Clint started, getting it faster than the others.

“They.... It’s not a full shift but... You got both,” Tony explained. Clint paled.

“What’s going on?” Steve questioned, looking back and forth between the archer and genius. Bucky’s eyebrows rose, focusing on Clint. Natasha glared at Tony.

“Clint... He’s got the reproductive system of a...”

“You’re joking,” Natasha warned, taking a threatening step forward. Tony glanced at Clint who simply nodded. He needed to hear this just as much as the others. Sighing, Tony flicked his hand out and a virtual scan of Clint’s lower half appeared. Tony zoomed in on the correct area. “What are we looking at?”

“FRI...” Tony begged, really not wanting to admit what everyone was seeing. Clint’s ‘areas’ lit up, drawing everyone’s attention there. Clint looked away from it, horrified by what happened to him.

“I don’t...” Steve started. The image zoomed in more and another two loaded on either side of Clint’s image.

“Captain Rogers. The left is an image of a normal male reproductive system. On the right is a female’s,” FRIDAY informed. The confused trio looked between the images. After a moment, FRIDAY helpfully highlighted Clint’s image with blue and pink sections for their given genders. Natasha gasped, looking sharply to Clint. And for once in Clint’s life, he noticed pure horror on her face. He winced. Steve and Bucky took a moment more. Bucky got it first and paled before focusing on the archer. Steve’s mouth dropped a second later.

“Is... Is it...” Natasha stuttered, another first.

“From my scans, Agent Barton should have complete ability to make and carry an infant but he will need surgical help to give birth,” FRIDAY intoned as if this hadn’t ruined the archer’s life. Bucky fell into a seat that had luckily been placed nearby. His mind flashed to the night before. Could he have already impregnated the archer? What would anyone think? Clint shifted, looking like he was getting ready to bolt.

“I’m... I’m gonna call Bruce,” Tony mumbled. Natasha stalked over to Tony and laid a finger harshly on his chest.

“This will not leave this room. All doctors will sign an extremely thorough NDA. Make sure they know if anything gets out, they will feel the wrath of the entire team,” Natasha growled, her face dark. Tony nodded, horrified that he was about to get killed. But with her comment over, Natasha stormed out of the room. Steve looked between Clint and Bucky. What else was there to say over this? Clint was now half woman. Bucky looked over to the archer.

“Clint?” he whispered. Clint looked to the soldier for only a second before bolting from the room. Bucky winced, wanting to go and follow but... What was Clint thinking? Was he wondering if Bucky had impregnated him as well? The knot was supposed to be used for that exact reason... So... Could it have happened? And what will happen for the rest of mating season. They wouldn’t be able to get lucky twice, never mind a month and a half.

“Look, I’m sorry to have to do this but... Bucky, we need to get you scanned as well... In both forms,” Tony muttered, his voice sounding absolutely wrecked. Bucky glanced at the genius even as Steve glared at him. With a sigh, Bucky headed up to the scanning zone and waited till FRIDAY told him to switch forms. In the meantime, Tony had gotten on a private cell phone and called someone up. “Brucie-bear! Hey... Yeah... No... I get that but.... You haven’t... No, you don’t understand! I’m not calling for me... Its...... Its Clint... Okay... See you soon.”

“Sergeant Barnes, if you could please change,” FRIDAY called into the now silent lab. Bucky nodded, pulling off the shirt before shifting over. At that point, Steve left. He wasn’t needed here. Bucky-wolf glanced up at the soldier leaving but couldn’t do much about it. “If I may, I believe having scans during the actual shifting process may also provide some insight as to what is going on.”

Tony nodded, looking over to Bucky-wolf. Giving a slight huff, Bucky changed forms as slowly as possible to give FRIDAY more time to scans. Tony winced with every bone crack and grind but tried his hardest not to simply stare at the change. Once human again, Bucky sighed deeply, making sure not to stand and give Tony a full look of him.

“Sergeant Barnes, if you could please change again. Your speed was acceptable as well,” FRIDAY informed. Bucky nodded and with a sigh, went through it all again. Sadly, FRIDAY needed Bucky to transform back and forth four more times. After FRIDAY cleared him, Tony came over with a pair of sweatpants. Bucky looked up when the cloth was placed before him. Tony made sure he was looking away.

“Thanks,” Bucky muttered as he grabbed the clothing and swiftly put it on. Tony nodded, red leaking onto the back of his neck. Bucky smirked but refused to comment on it. Slowly, he went to grab the discarded shirt he had borrowed form Clint. Though borrowed was a loose term considering, Bucky likely wasn’t going to return it. “Do you need anything else?”

“Uh,” Tony started, looking back at Bucky. “Not... Not at this time.”

“Okay,” Bucky replied before slipping out of the lab to allow Tony to do whatever he needed to do. Once outside though, he didn’t know where to go or what to do. Sighing, Bucky headed to the stairs and began his climb to the roof. He wasn’t planning on searching for Clint at all. That was up to the archer when they’d see each other again but Clint was on the roof. Clint turned to look at Bucky when the soldier arrived. Bucky froze. “I... I can go if you want.”

“Nah,” Clint stated, turning to look back out into the New York skyline. Bucky sighed in relief and headed over, sitting down next to the archer. “So... How are we gonna go about this?”

“What do you mean?” Bucky asked, facing the archer in surprise. Clint shrugged before moving his hand back and forth between the two of them. “I... I figured we’d stop... Stay away from each other.”

“Buck,” Clint muttered, looking to the soldier. “You can hardly handle a night by yourself and you suddenly think you can hold out for over a month and a half?”

“I can damn well try,” Bucky mumbled, turning to look away from Clint. Clint sighed and shifted closer so that their legs touched. Bucky glanced down at the contact even as his body shivered. “Clint.”

“Look, just the slightest contact with me already has you wanting to get ready,” Clint pointed out. Bucky shifted away, trying hard to push everything down. “You... You can wear condoms... Don’t know how they’ll react to the knot but it’s better than what we were doing. And once Bruce and Cho look everything over, I’ll see if I can get on some type of contraceptive.”

Bucky looked at Clint highly confused. “You... You still want to do this?”

“Buck, I can’t let you suffer for a month knowing that I could help,” Clint moaned. Bucky’s hips bucked at the sound. Clint snorted. Bucky turned away, embarrassed. “We need to at least try.”

“And what if I get you pregnant?” Bucky snapped, turning to look at the archer. Clint frowned. “What if you already are? Clint, do you seriously think you wouldn’t blame me for that?”

“Bucky,” Clint tried but Bucky shook his head and got to his feet.

“No... I’m not gonna risk it Clint,” he decisively decided before turning and walking away. Behind him he heard Clint scramble to get to his feet and follow. It made Bucky pick up his pace and rush through the door. Thankfully, FRIDAY must have been paying attention as the elevator doors were already open. Bucky lurched inside, turning and watching the doors close as Clint neared, a betrayed look on his face. Once the doors fully closed and the elevator headed down to Bucky’s floor, Bucky leaned his head against the wall behind him.

“If I may, I believe Agent Barton is more than willing to continue your tryst,” FRIDAY mentioned. Bucky sighed.

“I know. And that’s the problem.”

\---------- 

I missed this by a day. But, for a very good reason. As those who have read my stories on FF.net and read the author's notes there, yesterday was the one year... I feel like this is the wrong word for this but 'Anniversary' of my five year old son's passing. We still have yet to get an answer as to what happened but we hope that will change soon.

In the meantime, Darius is doing well. Getting better about listening, unless you tell him to be quiet. Had a few issues but nothing too bad. Currently he is staying at the grandparents house for the weekend. Hoping he enjoys it and that hubby and I have the time to right ourselves after this tough weekend. Baby Jason is doing good. Got one tooth in and working on his second. Cranky a whole lot because of it but again, with so many parents around, he usually gets the right attention at the proper times.

I have an alert in my phone for every Friday, so I should be on track once again. But for now, enjoy!


	11. Will Things Work Out?

CHAPTER 11 - Will Things Work Out?

That night, Bucky locked himself on his floor. He told FRIDAY that no one was allowed entrance, especially not Clint. After maybe ten minutes later, he also demanded FRIDAY not allow him to leave his floor, no matter what he was going to be saying. FRIDAY begrudgingly agreed. An hour later, Bucky was beginning to feel the effects of wanting to seek Clint out. He whimpered and curled himself into a ball on his couch, forcing himself to watch some mindless show on TV.

“Sergeant Barnes, I feel I must state that Doctor Banner has arrived and is currently looking over the data,” FRIDAY reported. Bucky nodded. That was good. Yeah. They’d be able to fix Clint up or even get rid of what he was going through. He should only have to make it through this night. And then things will be fine. Two hours later, Bucky was so deep into needing Clint and having sex that he wasn’t sure what was going on around him. He kept whimpering, moaning, growling... It just never ended. He felt like he was on fire. Desperate for something he refused to go and get. It was much worse than the other night Bucky had refused to go to Clint. And ten minutes later, Bucky blacked out.

Bucky came to when the morning rays coated his body. There was still an underlying desire to search Clint down and fuck the archer hard, but it was less than the beginning of the night. Which was odd considering the last time he had skipped a night, the day hadn’t been much better. What had been different this time? Sighing, Bucky sat up and froze.

His room was trashed. The couch torn to shreds, books ripped to pieces, cabinet doors handing by one screw or broken in half, even the TV had suffered damage. Looking into the bedroom Bucky noted that nearly all his clothing had been scattered around, torn into various pieces and was unfit for anyone to wear. The bed... If Bucky could even call it that, was unrecognizable.

“Oh god,” Bucky mumbled.

“Sergeant Barnes, I feel I must make mention that it may not be wise to try this course of action again,” FRIDAY warned. Bucky winced. Maybe... Maybe the AI was right. There was no way his room would survive another assault like this. “Captain Rogers is asking permission to enter. Shall I let him in?”

Bucky looked down at himself. At some point he must have shifted cause he had no clothes on. A quick glance around and Bucky noted the only article of clothing that survived the night was the shirt he had borrowed from Clint. He winced before going over and pulling it on. There was a pair of what used to be pants that now seemed more like underwear that Bucky found a moment later and tossed on. “Let him in.”

FRIDAY must have had Steve waiting in the elevator on Bucky’s floor as almost two seconds later, the doors opened and Steve walked in. Bucky winced again when Steve froze, looking about the room with wide eyes. “Whoa.”

“Yeah...” Bucky muttered, turning his face to the ground so as to not look at his childhood friend. “I... I tried avoiding Clint.”

“You’ve...” Steve started to say but stopped.

“Since I found Clint, we’ve... We’ve basically had to have sex every night. If... If I don’t...” Bucky explained before looking around the room. “This... This was only the second night that I didn’t go to Clint at all. All the other times, I just... Kinda lost control of myself... Kinda felt ill until Clint was touching me. Especially the night you guys found out.”

“So... This is what happens when you don’t go to him?” Steve wondered. Bucky sighed.

“I guess. I... I didn’t have this issue before,” he answered, shifting his weight as his body decided to let him know he still wanted sex, but he had better control over it right now. “What’s worse is... I still...”

“You still want it?” Steve asked. Bucky nodded. “You... You might want to go to Clint.”

“No!” Bucky cried. Steve frowned. “God, no. I can’t.”

“Why... Is this cause of?”

“Yeah.... I.... The fricken knot is made to make sure he’ll get pregnant... We... We already did it before we found out... I can’t risk another attempt,” Bucky whimpered. Steve frowned. He had never heard his friend whimper before. Bucky sighed and looked around the room. He really just wanted to sit down.

“What does Clint say about it all?” Steve questioned, moving carefully around the destruction to get closer to his friend. Bucky winced, turning away from Steve. “He wants to-”

“Yeah... He wants to keep going. Doesn’t think I can last a month without it,” Bucky stated. Both men looked around the room. “While I may... Doubt my room will be able to.”

“Buck, are you afraid to get him pregnant?” Steve inquired. Bucky nodded.

“Wouldn’t you? Your friend just became half chick and has been told he could carry a child. And rather than letting the guy try and process this, the... The idiot is more worried about me,” Bucky listed, tossing his hands into the air.

“Clint’s always been like that,” Steve whispered. Bucky growled. “Look, there are ways around all this.”

“Can you be a hundred percent positive that a fucking condom can cover over the knot? That it wouldn’t break down in the thirty or forty minutes for my knot to deflate? And... Stevie, we don’t just go once,” Bucky informed, looking away from his friend as he did. Steve’s eyes widened in surprise. “I... I’m not always in my right mind to be able to worry about a condom anyway. If... If the damn wolf had his way, we’d likely be having sex every second of every day.”

“That doesn’t sound like-”

“I know. I looked it up. Wolves don’t mate like this during this time. They don’t need to have sex as often as Clint and I have. I... I don’t know where this drive is coming from. Just... All I know is, last night I tore up my room because I was banned from my mate. And even now, while I’m not deep in lust like I had been before... I still want to find him and fuck him wherever we are,” Bucky hissed. Steve turned beat red. Bucky gave a half chuckle at Steve’s face. “Sorry.”

“No... No, it’s... It’s fine. Just-”

“Surprising. I know. Trust me, even before finding out what happened with Clint I wondered why things were this intense.”

“Maybe... Maybe when we find the guy who bit you,” Steve suggested. Bucky shook his head.

“He died only a minute later. Can’t ask him much of anything now,” Bucky muttered. Steve frowned.

“Does Tony know?”

“AIM did... I think,” Bucky replied. Steve frowned. “They... They mentioned that we give out a certain... Aura or energy or something. Something they could trace to us. Don’t always know what animal we are, but... They can find us.”

“Maybe we can use that to find the others before AIM gets them back,” Steve softly said, mostly to himself. Bucky nodded. “Or, it could lead us to their new research spot.”

“Lead the JSC don’t you mean?” Bucky countered. Steve frowned before realizing what Bucky meant. They couldn’t go back out there and deal with this once they hand the information over. Steve groaned and moved to lean against the island in the kitchen. The whole thing shifted and Steve jumped off it. Looking down, both could now see that the wood underneath had been compromised by claw marks and teeth marks. Bucky groaned.

“I’ll talk to Bruce and Tony, make sure they know what happened last night,” Steve mumbled. Bucky nodded.

“I’ll... I’ll clean up in here,” the soldier replied. Steve nodded and headed to the elevator. For a split second Bucky found himself almost lunging to get on as well but held himself in place, watching as the doors closed in front of Steve. Bucky whimpered at the steel doors but gathered himself up enough to start cleaning his space.

-LINE BREAK-

“His room was trashed. Looked like a tornado or something blew through it,” Steve reported. Clint frowned, wincing when Bruce stuck another needle into his arm.

“And he said it wasn’t like this before?” Cho asked having arrived first thing in the morning. Steve sighed.

“He said the last time, he was a bit calmer about it. But, his day had been wracked with the same amount of.... Of feeling. When I went down, we had a civil conversation about it all so he seemed in control but... He did mention a sight of Clint, no matter where or what was going on, Bucky would jump him,” Steve added, his face flushing by the end of it. Bruce looked over to Steve.

“That doesn’t sound anything like typical wolf behavior,” the doc mentioned. Steve nodded.

“He said that too.”

“Well, I looked it up... According to the ‘fanfiction’ world, the ‘Alpha and Omega’ situation has it that for like a week, the Alpha goes into rut and the Omega goes into heat. During that week, they need sex on a pretty consistent amount of time. Like the refectory period at the beginning is like nil but by the end, they can relax,” Tony explained. All eyes turned to Clint who was blushing furiously. “Has it-”

“No.... It’s.... It’s pretty much like the first night every time... Except... Except the night before we found out about me. We... We went like double the amount of times,” Clint replied, frowning now as he thought about it.

“We may want to do tests every day,” Cho called. Clint looked up at her. “We can watch for increase of hCG.”

“Was’ that?” Clint questioned. Cho sighed.

“HCG is Human Chorionic Gonadotropin. It’s what tell a woman’s body to make ready for a baby. This is what typically shows up on the pregnancy tests found in stores. Blood work is much easier to check with and can show up faster. Especially if I am testing you every day. We should be able to find out within the next few days or so if you are,” Cho said. Clint paled dramatically. “Now, that’s not to say we will be certain as you may start producing it naturally, so getting a fully positive test won’t be for another week or more. You likely should be producing both hCG and testosterone as you are still both sexes. So there should be a dramatic change in both. But, there is a typical peak level that will decide if you are or aren’t.”

“Holy fuck,” Clint sighed out.

“And that’s even if AIM did fully succeed. While yes, you have the parts to be able to... There may not be a way for you to produce the right hormones to hold on,” Bruce retorted.

“But FRIDAY said-” Steve started.

“According to scans, yes. FRIDAY is correct. Clint has the ability to make and carry an infant. But it isn’t just about the parts of the body. Hormones play a very large role in the creation and continuation of pregnancy. If Clint cannot produce these hormones well... He’ll essentially just be a male with female organs,” Cho stated.

“So... So it’s possible that I’ll be okay?” Clint wondered. Cho nodded.

“Without the correct production of hormones, yes. You will be ‘okay.’” Cho responded, her face flinching at the idea of saying ‘okay.’ “But, in the mean time. As much as this may pain Sergeant Barnes, you need to avoid him.”

“Aw...” Clint moaned before glancing at Steve and blushing furiously.

“Bucky agrees with that as well,” Steve pointed out. Clint huffed but nodded his head. Bruce turned to Tony.

“Bucky may also get rather violent in his attempts to get to Clint. We know that the floors are super soldier, Thor and Hulk proof, but AIM mentioned getting the animal traits to be stronger,” Bruce told the genius.

“Are you saying that I need to reinforce more walls?” Tony muttered. Bruce winced.

“Maybe on at least Clint’s floor. For now, I am guessing Bucky will be willing to stay in his room, but he will need time to get out sooner or later. And that’s when Clint will need to be the one ‘locked’ away. No offense,” Bruce said, glancing at Clint near the end. Clint frowned but nodded his head. “The longer this lasts, the worse Bucky may become. We can’t be certain you’ll be safe, Clint.”

“No, I get it. The... The wolf can get pretty violent when Bucky waits too long,” Clint agreed.

“You act as if the wolf has it’s own conscious,” Cho called. Clint shrugged.

“Bucky mentioned a few times that he feels like the wolf is ‘pushing’ against him. I think it’s kinda like Bruce and Hulk,” Clint replied, nodding his head to said doctor. Bruce frowned. “He’s got the mind set of a person nearly all the time but... When he starts to go more wolfish, it’s like another mind set is taking over.”

“So like a split personality,” Cho whispered. Clint nodded. “I may need to speak with Sergeant Barnes to get more information on all this directly from him.”

“I’d suggest that you go to his floor. Tony will need to hurry on reinforcing Clint’s room,” Steve suggested, glancing quickly to the genius. Tony nodded, turning to start running numbers on how best to ‘block’ off Clint’s room from the rest of the tower.

“I can leave the tower for the day,” Clint mentioned.

“No. AIM will be after you both. We need to keep both of you here,” Steve replied. Clint huffed but agreed.

“Hey, can I go to the range?” he asked.

“I don’t see why not,” Cho answered. Clint nodded, jumping off the table they had stuck him on and heading off. As soon as he was out the doors, Bruce focused on Steve.

“You’ll need to be with him now. You and I are the only ones strong enough to stop Bucky from doing anything. And I need to be here,” Bruce basically ordered. Steve winced but sighed and headed off after the archer.

-LINE BREAK-

“So, I get a babysitter now?” Clint scoffed when Steve arrived on the range. The captain was honestly a little surprise at how much of a head start Clint had gotten from him. Steve had run down the stairs in order to get here, yet Clint had already set up and started firing.

“Not babysitting, pro... Cov.... Watching your back,” Steve stuttered. Clint snorted, glancing at the captain.

“Seriously?”

“Look, Bruce mentioned that if Bucky does get out and try to find you that he and I are the only ones capable of holding him off. And I agree,” Steve replied. Clint put his bow to face the ground as he snapped an angry glare at Steve.

“You don’t think I can’t fight him off?” Clint hissed. Steve held up his hands in defense.

“No, it’s not that. Just... You... We don’t want to risk it getting too bad before someone can back you up if needed,” Steve explained. Clint huffed, turning back to start shooting again. “And, you’ve kinda given off the air of not wanting to really fight Bucky off.”

Clint stiffened. That was honestly true. Clint doubted he would attempt to fight Bucky off. Once he saw how bad Bucky was getting it would make Clint feel guilty and decide he’d help. The archer sighed and went back to shooting, attempting to relax. It wasn’t really working. Clint’s mind kept flashing to every moment that Bucky had held off and didn’t come to Clint on time. The soldier seemed to hardly be able to stand, never mind trying to fight Clint. After maybe an hour, hardly any time for Clint to even work up a little sweat, the archer gave in and stopped.

“Done already?” Steve wondered as Clint started packing up. Clint stiffly nodded. “Something wrong?”

“Honestly. This whole god damn situation,” Clint cussed, trying his hardest not to just throw his bow in frustration. “If AIM hadn’t succeeded then Bucky wouldn’t have to be suffering like he is. I wouldn’t have to fucking worry about being FUCKING pregnant!”

“Clint,” Steve attempted. Clint shook his head.

“Don’t. Nothing can make this better unless Bruce, Cho and Tony come down saying they can fix this,” Clint snarled. After that, Clint fell mostly to the floor, curling himself into a ball while balancing on his toes. Then he let out an angered yell. Steve winced. Once he was done, Clint rocked forward so that he was on his knees. “And to make the issue even larger, most of the team are considered fugitives and terrorists. If Ross ever gets around to checking on Tony, he’ll find all of us here.”

“Clint, we’ll be-

“I swear if you say ‘fine’ then I’m gonna shove an arrow up your ass so far that you won’t even see the fletching,” Clint growled. Steve winced. Slowly Clint looked up at Steve. “Nothing has been fine since Odin sent Thor to Earth as ‘punishment’ for attacking Jotunheim.”

“But, Bucky and I would still be around,” Steve mentioned. Clint sighed.

“I doubt AIM would be so focused on a super soldier if you hadn’t woken,” Clint mentioned. Steve’s eyes shifted to look down at the floor. Clint jerked as if slapped. “I’m sorry.”

“No. You’re right. Bucky, while being the Winter Soldier, was never mentioned being a super soldier. And if I hadn’t woken, people wouldn’t assume that the serum would make a person immortal. But, what would stop Tony from being Iron Man? From Bruce forming Hulk? And the Hydra infiltration of S.H.I.E.L.D? Those Helicarriers would have taken flight and Hydra would kill anyone they wanted,” Steve listed. Clint groaned, slowly getting back to his feet. “I’m not saying you aren’t right to wish Thor never came down, but... At lot of these events stopped some bigger issues from coming about.”

“I know... I’m just...”

“Pissed off?” Steve finished. Clint huffed a laugh.

“Yeah.”

\----------

Ugh. I will get things back on track. Least I aren't missing too long.

Anywho, Darius had spent most of the week being really good. Wednesday, I did something to my back and was in pain all day so hubby slept with him on that night, then Thursday and had to do it again Friday because Darius had a nightmare and I didn't want him coming in our bed hurting my back all over again. But Friday morning hit... And dear lord if he wasn't highly annoying! Constantly in my face repeatedly asking questions that I've already said no too. Giving me attitude, being too loud and bothering Baby Jason. Ugh. Hubby came home from work, and you could tell he didn't really believe my story of how Darius was being, then like ten minutes later he looked at me and was like 'how have you handled this all day?' Yup. Baby Jason has seemed to have gotten sick this week. His father isn't doing much better... Got him to get checked out and they couldn't find anything but gave him meds. It almost seems to have made it better but not well enough. Hopefully by the time he finishes his meds it will be fixed. As for Baby Jason, he vomited once that I am aware of and has a small bump where he had gotten his flu shot. No redness around the shot, just a tiny bump. Otherwise, he's been giving his parents a hard time sleeping.

Hope you all enjoy!


	12. Fanfiction

CHAPTER 12 - Fanfiction

“I’m sorry to inform you of this Agent Barton, but your hCG levels are rising and your testosterone is falling a bit to compensate,” Cho informed a few days later. Clint paled. Not only was he now partly female but he could conceive a child. With a moan, Clint dropped his head into his hands. “I wish I had better news.”

“It’s... Well, it’s not fine but... I don’t blame you,” Clint grumbled, not moving his head at all. Cho nodded. Slowly, the archer looked up. “Are you guys any closer to finding a way to fix this?”

Bruce winced, not wanting to look at the archer. Tony intentionally turned away. With a pained look, Clint turned to stare at Cho. She had a frown on her face.

“Again, I’m sorry for this. But, what happened to you cannot be undone,” Cho explained. Clint let out a startled cry. “All we can do is manage the levels of hormones inside of you.”

“So... You’re saying I have to go on birth control meds?” Clint muttered. Cho frowned and Clint let out a desperate sigh.

“I would not suggest that at this point in time. This change is very new and we need to make sure there will be absolutely no backlash or even more changes to your body. Once we are certain that everything has stabilized, that is when I’d consider a possibility of putting you on birth control,” Cho answered. Clint gave out a pathetic whimper. “And... Again, we don’t understand fully what happened so birth control may not work on you.”

“Jesus,” Clint gasped out.

“I’m going to recommend an obstetrician be added to watching over you. I have a rather limited knowledge on how to control this,” Cho pointed out. Tony looked up.

“I could call Pepper’s ob. She’s already signed an NDA so we won’t have to worry about that,” Tony mentioned. Clint winced. “Pep’s got an appointment in a few days, we can ask then.”

“Do they come to the tower or does she go out to them?” Bruce wondered.

“Comes here. There isn’t always a safe option to go to her,” Tony said. The genius then looked at Clint. “I’ve already done research on her. She’s top of her field and already checked out. It’s kinda the best option.”

“God, this is so fucking embarrassing,” Clint groaned, dropping his head back into his hands.

“I’m sorry Agent Barton. But, you will have to be regularly checked for any changes or issues,” Cho added. Clint sighed deeply and nodded.

“I get it, I really do. Doesn’t change how humiliating this thing is,” the archer nearly sobbed. Tony and Bruce twitched. They had never heard Clint getting this close to emotionally breaking down. But, considering the circumstances, it made sense that Clint would have major issues. “Yeah, I’ll... I’ll see her.”

“Okay, I’ll call and see if she can make time to check you over as well,” Tony stated, his voice pained. Clint nodded, not really listening any more.

“We will still be needing to do daily blood draws,” Cho continued. Clint jerked but nodded.

“Am I done here?” Clint grumbled. Cho sighed.

“Yes.” With that said, Clint bolted from the room. Steve had left once delivering Clint to the floor and so he wasn’t around to ‘babysit’ Clint but the archer didn’t care. He needed to get away from everyone at the moment. Taking the stairs, Clint jumped them nearly three or four at a time until he hit Bucky’s floor. Then, the door suddenly busted open. Steve had mentioned that Bucky had been getting progressively worse the longer this went on and so Clint had easily agreed to stay away from the soldier. But today was the first day without Steve following him around and the first day Clint stupidly decided going down the stairs.

“Shit, Buck,” Clint cried, backing up as the soldier stalked out from his room. Bucky’s eyes were a deep golden that latched harshly onto Clint at the sight of the archer. The soldier snarled, showing that he had a bit of fang coming out to play as if Bucky was changing. He also had elongated nails like claws. “Buck?”

Bucky said nothing, just slowly moved forward. Clint scrambled up a few steps. This wasn’t good. Why hadn’t he listened? Why hadn’t he waited for Steve? And why hadn’t he taken the god damn elevator? As Clint backed up, Bucky growled, low and dangerous.

“Buck, you don’t want to do this,” Clint pleaded, hoping that Bucky could come through and break the wolf’s control. But either Bucky couldn’t do it or didn’t care cause nothing happened. Clint grimaced and moved up another step, tripping slightly when he realized he had hit the landing. As the archer fell, Bucky lunged forward, snatching the archer. Clint cried out in surprise before putting his hands between their chest. He tried to push against Bucky, in an effort to get away, but trying was like trying to move a mountain. “Bucky, please!”

Bucky snuffed, picking the archer up and onto his shoulder before slowly going back to his room. Clint whimpered, trying to over balance Bucky as he shifted and squirmed as much as possible. But Bucky held him tight. Clint whimpered again, trying to appeal to Bucky as if it would stop the wolf. Bucky didn’t seem to be bothered. Once at the door to Bucky’s floor, the soldier brought them inside. Somehow, without Clint figuring out how, Bucky closed the door which amazingly had survived the soldier’s crash through it. Now in his room, Bucky moved a bit faster to bring Clint to the bedroom. Clint cried out, trying harder to get away.

“BUCKY, STOP!” Clint screamed. “FRIDAY!”

“I have already alerted Doctor Banner and Captain Rogers. They should be here momentarily,” the AI intoned. Clint sobbed in relief even as Bucky entered the bedroom and plopped Clint on the bed. Free from Bucky’s grasp, Clint scrambled over the bed and headed for the door to the bathroom, not even noticing Bucky closing the bedroom door. Hopefully Clint could either hide in the bathroom or get enough time to scramble into the vents. Bucky snarled, jumping in the way. Clint gasped but still slid into the soldier. Again, Bucky lifted Clint to the air and dropped the archer on the bed. Outside of the room there was a loud commotion. It must have been Steve or Bruce.

“IN HERE!” Clint screamed, desperate to get help. Bucky hissed, spinning to grab the bureau and pull it in front of the door. It got into place just as someone slammed into the door. None of it budged. Clint let out a small cry of despair. Bucky growled darkly at the door.

“Clint!” Steve shouted through the door.

“STEVE!” Clint answered. Bucky hissed, shifting to the bed and grabbing the archer before Clint could attempt to get away. Clint cried out, shocked. Bucky pulled the archer close as there was banging on the door. Steve wasn’t going to give up. Damn Tony and making everything super soldier proof. For once, it was going to hurt one of the Avengers.

“Mine,” Bucky hissed, his voice dark and dangerous. Clint looked at Bucky in shock before realizing that hadn’t been Bucky. It was the wolf.

“Oh god,” Clint moaned. Bucky leaned down a bit, sniffing Clint. The archer whimpered again, shifting to get away, accidentally showing his neck to what was now the wolf. In response, the wolf gave out a pleased rumble and leaned down into the open crook. Clint cried out, shifting to get away in surprise. The wolf didn’t seem to care as it shifted and suddenly bit down hard on Clint’s shoulder, mostly letting go of the archer. Clint screamed.

“CLINT!” Steve exclaimed before finally busting into the room. Seeing Bucky biting Clint’s neck, Steve growled, grabbing Bucky by the collar of his shirt and pulled the soldier/wolf off, sending him into the wall head first. Clint sagged onto the bed, thankful that Bucky had released him before being tossed. Steve moved to get between Bucky and Clint as Bucky shifted to sit and shake his head in surprise. He looked over to the duo.

“Stevie?” Bucky wondered, his voice much different than it had been before. Clint whimpered, grabbing at his throbbing neck. Bucky’s eyes twitched to the site. His eyes widened in surprise before he stumbled to his feet, trying to back up even more. Steve stood taller, waiting to defend Clint if needed. “Did.... Did I?”

“Bucky,” Steve responded, his voice sharp. Bucky winced, looking over to Steve. “Are you going to be okay enough for me to take Clint off your floor?”

Bucky twitched but nodded his head. Steve shifted, twisting to his side to grab the archer up with one arm but his eyes never left Bucky. Clint moved, using Steve as leverage to get up. Slowly, Steve led Clint out of the room, making sure to keep himself between the archer and Bucky. Waiting in the living room was Bruce, Tony and Cho. Bruce rushed forward the second he saw Clint. He gently pulled Clint away from Steve, gasping in surprise at the damage done to Clint’s neck. Tony saw it next and inhaled a quick shocked breath. Cho frowned at the sight and moved to help Bruce lead Clint to the elevator.

“Stevie,” Bucky nearly sobbed. Steve stayed in the doorway, waiting till the others were safe before he followed after them. “I...”

“Don’t,” Steve hissed. Bucky jerked back as if slapped.

“But-”

“No. We all knew something like this was going to happen. Trust me, Clint will get his ear full as well, but you should have had better control than that. God, you bit him!” Steve snapped. Bucky let out a cry of pain, dropping to his knees. “We expected maybe you roughly fucking him, but... We all know what can happen with a bite!”

“I... I don’t... Know what happened,” Bucky mumbled. Steve sighed deeply.

“I’m going to go check on Clint. FRIDAY, lock down Bucky’s rooms,” Steve ordered before spinning on his heel and walking away. Bucky sobbed, tears freely falling now that Steve was leaving. How could things have gone so badly?

\----------

“It doesn’t look as bad as I had feared,” Cho muttered as she cleaned at the bit wound. Clint whimpered, trying hard not to just get up and run away.

“We can only hope that whatever Bucky go infected with only transfers in wolf form,” Bruce mentioned. Clint closed his eyes in fear. God, not only was he half fucking female, but now he might add half wolf on top of that?

“We can attempt to fix this at least,” Tony whispered, carefully going through the data he had gotten from AIM and from FRIDAY’s scans of Bucky and his wolf side.

“Tony, they are in two completely different situations here,” Bruce hissed, shifting away from Clint in an attempt to not let the archer overhear him. “Bucky’s got the serum and Clint... Clint’s system is already messed up with the first issue. I... I don’t know what this might do.”

“Clint, I’m going to want you locked in observation for the next few days,” Cho recommended. Clint numbly nodded. He really wasn’t going to fuck around with any of this. Carefully, Cho lead Clint into the observation/clean room that was set up in the lab. Thankfully it was empty of anything. “We’ll add in a bed and things in a bit.”

“Okay,” Clint sighed out before shifting inside and going to the far corner, slowly sliding down till he was sitting, his legs pulled up into his chest. Then his head dropped onto his knees, his arms wrapping around his legs to pull them in tighter. Bruce and Tony winced at the sight of their friend before going back to work. Cho sighed, moving to her own station that had been set up nearly a week ago. Steve took that moment to come into the lab.

“How is he?” Steve asked without any preamble. Bruce looked up before pointing to the clean room. Steve glanced inside at the sight of his friend and teammate curled up in the corner. The captain’s eyes closed and he let out a deep sigh of disappointment. “God, I should have known better.”

“None of us could have known about this, Steve,” Bruce tried to soothe. Steve shook his head.

“I shouldn’t have left him here with you guys. I should have stayed. Then I would have been following him and Bucky wouldn’t have been able to get that far,” Steve called.

“It wasn’t Bucky,” Clint’s voice softly came through the speakers. Everyone looked to the archer but Clint hadn’t moved. “Bucky... Bucky wouldn’t have done this. It was the wolf. The wolf consciously bit me.”

“Clint-” Steve started. Clint’s head jerked up to glare at Steve.

“Don’t tell me that Bucky is the wolf! I’ve been with him nearly every day since he turned. I can tell when the god damned wolf takes over! Bucky wasn’t himself when this happened,” Clint snapped. Steve winced. It was nice to hear that it wasn’t Bucky’s fault but it still didn’t change what happened.

“If it was the wolf, why would it do this?” Bruce asked. Clint sighed, his head dropping back onto his knees.

“I think... I think I accidentally submitted myself to him,” the archer mumbled.

“What?” Bruce wondered.

“I was... I was trying to get away from him. When I pushed back at one point, I twisted my head away, showing this part of my neck,” Clint explained, pointing to the area the wolf had bitten. “That’s... That’s a submissive pose just as much as laying on one’s back and presenting your stomach.”

“The ‘fanfiction’ community also says that that area has what they call a ‘bonding’ gland,” Tony pointed out. Everyone turned to him with a glare. “Look! I get that this shit isn’t fanfiction but... A lot of what is going on follows what that community says in this situations.”

“So, what does a bonding mean?” Cho wondered. Tony sighed.

“Each thing is different. Some have telepathy, empathy, just an overall sense of being with someone... It’s varied,” Tony replied. Clint huffed.

“I haven’t noticed anything,” the archer grumbled. Tony sighed.

“Cause you have to bit him back,” the genius stated. Clint looked sharply up at him.

“What?” he strangled out.

“It’s... It’s a two way street. Not just one partner can force it on the other, though there are a few stories that do that. Most of them all agree, both parties must bite the gland to get the bond,” Tony answered.

“This isn’t a fanfiction. There is no way that that could happen,” Steve muttered. Tony sighed.

“Look. I get that. But, there are a lot of similarities here. We can’t discount it all. I’ve seen some of the fics that actually are pretty good retellings or predictions of things that have happened to us. The community states that Bucky will have a near endless desire to mate with whoever he’s chosen. He chose Clint. That means, he basically needs sex all the time,” Tony started.

“Not all the time. Mostly at night,” Clint mumbled. Tony sighed.

“Again, similarities, not actual facts. There is also the ability to shift back and forth, the display of dominance when close to ‘rut’ or mating season. And now this. Bucky is basically laying claim on Clint, stating to the world that Clint belongs to him,” Tony continued, point to Clint.

“It does make some sense there,” Cho added. “These traits are so abnormal for wolves but do follow what Tony has been saying. I’ve looked into it a bit as well. In an Alpha and Omega story, any gender can be the Alpha or the Omega. An Omega male with not have a typical vagina like all women, but will have a sort of, flap of muscle that opens during the Omega’s ‘heat.’ Clint’s scan shows that that is what he has. The area basically swells open for the entrance of semen. The main difference is that Omegas typically have the ability to give birth on their own, while we can say for certain that Clint will need surgical help.”

“So, basically that’s what’s going on? I’m... I’ve been changed to this... Omega?” Clint questioned.

“No,” Bruce replied. The group looked to him. “When you were all first discussing this, Clint got into a small arguing with Tony. Natasha yelled at you both and Bucky’s eyes flashed an angry golden color. That is because, Natasha is not the Alpha female. Clint is considered the Alpha female.”

“But, we...”

“Not every pair has always been able to produce children,” Tony whispered. “There are stories out there of Alpha and Alpha, Omega and Omega, and if it has it, a mix with Betas.”

“So, why did Bucky chose Clint out of everyone?” Steve inquired.

“Bucky said he liked me before,” Clint whispered. Steve focused on his with a frown. “I know, we didn’t talk or anything but... He said that he watched me fighting and... And started liking me. Then, when he came to the house, I... I made up a fake back story on the fly to keep him safe. I made myself part of his pack.”

“Even if Bucky didn’t have feelings for you, the wolf may have chosen you because once you became pack, there was only two of you. And during mating season, the wolf would want to get with someone,” Tony added. Clint winced. He had feared that. Maybe, as much as Bucky said he liked Clint, this really was all the wolf’s attachment.

“I feel I must mention there is an emergency in Sergeant Barnes’s room,” FRIDAY suddenly interrupted. Steve jerked in response.

“What is it?” Bruce asked.

“Sergeant Barnes is... He is attacking himself,” FRIDAY reported. Steve and Bruce cussed before rushing to the elevator. Cho and Tony didn’t move. It would likely be best that the ‘supers’ were the only ones involved.

\----------

New chapter is up! I'm glad everyone seems to be enjoying this. Thank you all for the kudos!

Darius is doing good. Currently making a food mess in the house... But, good. We had an adventurous weekend. Sunday we saw Trans-Siberian Orchestra which was an amazing show! We sat front row so the band members could really see us and tended to wave to Darius when they had a second to do so. Monday night we went to Monday Night Raw. We sat third row TV side. If you watch Raw then look for the woman in purple and blue hair with glasses. That's me. Darius is the child in the purple Firefly Funhouse shirt. Had a troublesome week just because of lack of sleep for all of us, but we seem to be catching up pretty good now. Baby Jason is doing good. Yesterday, everyone had him laughing by playing various games. This morning, he threw up on his parents after being put in the car. Hopefully he isn't ill.

And that's it. See you next Friday (or Saturday) with the next chapter.


	13. Can We Catch A Break?

CHAPTER 13 - Can We Catch A Break?

“Bucky! Stop!” Steve cried the second he entered the room to see Bucky standing there with a sharpened wooden dowel or something. Scattered about the floor were various weapons and the like. Bucky glanced up at Steve before shaking his head.

“I can’t,” the soldier sobbed, moving to stab the dowel harshly into his chest. Steve got there just in time to stop the attack from getting too deep. Bucky cried out in anger and pain. “Stevie, please!”

“No, you can’t do this,” Steve snapped, yanking the dowel out of Bucky’s now lax grip. Bruce moved forward, looking Bucky over quickly. The serum had cleared up a lot of the wounds that Bucky seemed to have attempted at making so nothing was really life threatening at this point.

“Please!” Bucky begged. Steve shook his head, gripping Bucky’s wrist and holding it away from his body. For once the soldier was glad no one have given Bucky a new metal arm. “Steve!”

“No! I won’t let you do this,” Steve growled. Bucky’s eyes flashed golden for a second before the soldier shook his head and tried to pull himself away from Steve with a cry. Steve frowned and finally understood what Clint had said. Bucky was fighting back another part of him. And it was just as bad as the Winter Soldier part.

“Please,” Bucky gasped, trying a bit harder but Steve tightened his grip on Bucky’s wrist. There was a creak of bones grinding but Steve didn’t lessen his hold. After a moment, Bucky sagged, dropping the two of them to their knees. “I can’t... I can’t do this... I hurt... I hurt Clint.”

“Clint is fine,” Bruce stated. Which was technically true. Clint would survive the attack but no one knew if anything else would happen. Only time would tell with that.

“No... No, I... I bit him,” Bucky whined.

“It wasn’t you,” Steve whispered. Bucky looked up at Steve in surprise. “Clint... He mentioned it to us. He said it wasn’t you. The wolf inside did it.”

“But-”

“No. The wolf... It’s like Hulk. You are two separate beings,” Bruce soothed, moving to kneel next to Bucky. “Clint said he could see a noticeable difference in your behavior. And going through video records since you arrived at the tower, I can see some differences.”

“But-”

“Bucky, Clint doesn’t blame you,” Steve added. Bucky shook his head.

“I do,” the soldier softly said. “God, why can’t this nightmare be over?”

“Buck,” Steve muttered, feeling sorry for his friend. Sighing, Steve released Bucky’s wrists but didn’t go away. Instead he pulled the soldier into his chest. “We’ll figure all this out.”

“I’m not safe. I... I need to be locked up. Or, maybe T’Challa will be willing to freeze me again,” Bucky replied. Steve’s hug tightened for a moment.

“We can’t. We need to watch you in real time. Not frozen,” Bruce sighed out. “I’m sorry, but you can’t hide from this.”

“Do... Do you think Hulk’s playroom could hold Bucky better than his floor?” Steve wondered. Bruce sighed.

“Actually. I was thinking maybe we should move Bucky to the other clean room in the lab,” Bruce countered.

“But, that can’t hold him,” Steve pointed out. Bruce nodded.

“I know. But... FRIDAY can quickly suck the air from that room if Bucky even attempts anything. Also, being near Clint might have a more positive effect on the wolf then this separation,” Bruce retorted.

“I can’t,” Bucky mumbled. Bruce sighed.

“Look, we’re gonna need tests done on both of you. Doing them in your room is not going to be as effective as doing it in the lab. Keeping you both there could expedite everything. We’d also be able to better understand how the wolf works in your head. Will it still demand to mate, or does it sense a difference in Clint?” Bruce answered. Bucky frowned. “I’m sorry. I wish there was another solution.”

“How are we going to get him there?” Steve questioned. Bruce pulled out a syringe with a yellowish liquid inside.

“This is the stuff I use to knock out Hulk. I think it may knock out Bucky for at least the trip up to the lab, if not a little longer,” Bruce explained. Steve nodded, looking to Bucky who, even though his lips were pursed in fear and sadness, also nodded. Bruce moved closer and before Bucky could even attempt to freak out, he jabbed it into Bucky’s shoulder and depressed it. Bucky jerked away in surprise but thankfully didn’t attack. After a moment, Bucky was still awake, staring at them.

“I don’t thi-” Steve started but stopped when Bucky slowly started to fall to the floor. Steve shifted forward to grab the soldier before he collapsed onto the ground.

“Come on, we need to move,” Bruce ordered. Nodding, Steve quickly got to his feet and pulled Bucky up bridal style. “We don’t know how long this will last.”

\----------

“Uh, no! This is a bad idea,” Tony cried as soon as Bruce and Steve came out of the elevator with Bucky still unconscious in Steve’s arms. Clint looked up but got to his feet in surprise at the sight.

“Guys?” he called as Steve rushed to the secondary clean room and gently placed Bucky down before backing out. Bruce closed the door and put it on extra security lockdown.

“What’s going on?” Cho wondered.

“When Steve restrained Bucky to stop attacking himself, I watched as Bucky’s eyes flashed golden. The same golden color that the wolf has. Clint’s right, the wolf is a separate being,” Bruce explained.

“So you bring him here, closer to Clint?” Tony incredulously asked.

“Separating them seemed to make things much worse. But, the first moment that Bucky could have attempted sexual advances, he instead backed off. From what I heard before, Bucky would have done it in the stairwell if he was as desperate as well all thought,” Bruce pointed out. A moment later, there was a groan from the clean room. Clint jerked over, seeing Bucky beginning to stir.

“Buck?” the archer muttered. With a jerk of surprise, Bucky got into a sitting position and backed away from the wall closest to Clint. “Hey, calm down.”

“Clint,” Bucky whispered.

“Bucky, remember what I said. FRIDAY can suck all the air from the room if you attempt anything. This is one of the safest places right now,” Bruce reminded. Bucky nodded but still didn’t move away from the far wall. Clint sighed, shifting so he was further away as well, hoping that it’d calm Bucky down. Thankfully it did.

“Okay, now that everyone is here and set, FRIDAY can you run some scans for me?” Cho called, completely ignoring the elephant in the room of putting Clint and Bucky so close to each other.

\----------

“My name is Margaret Cart,” the obstetrician introduced as soon as Clint headed into the office that Pepper normally separated for this appointment. Clint stiffened a bit at the name. Just two letters away from a name he really didn’t want Steve and Bucky to hear about.

“Doctor Cart. Clint Barton,” Clint greeted, gulping as Cart took his hand to shake.

“Please, call me Peg,” she replied, her voice going a bit tense and strained. Clint winced. Yeah, no. He was not going to introduce this woman to Bucky or Steve. “It’s not my usual clientele to work with a man.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not usual for me to have to call on your kind of specialty,” Clint retorted. ‘Peg’ laughed.

“I apologize for what has been done to you and hope that I can help you feel at least somewhat comfortable with the things I will need to be doing,” Peg stated. Clint nodded. “Now, today will just be a quick run through of medical history, any family illnesses, and... Well, any abnormal things that could have happened to cause an issue.”

“I don’t know any family illnesses... Was orphaned at six,” Clint started. Peg frowned, looking up to Clint in surprise. Clint shrugged. “Dad was a drunk, hit a tree with mom in the car.”

“Ah. Well, lets go through your own medical history. I need to know all surgeries, long term illnesses, and so on,” Peg continued. Clint sighed.

“I’m currently 30 percent deaf in my left ear and 25 percent in my right. Every head injury I get kind makes it worse. Uh, I’ve had a bunch of surgeries so, I’d sadly have to suggest finding my S.H.I.E.L.D file online for a complete list,” Clint began before pausing when he noticed Peg had lowered her clipboard and stared at him. Clint shrugged. “What did you expect with a spy and Avenger?”

“I’m... I’m sorry. I’m not...”

“Used to someone like me?” Clint lightly joked. Peg cracked a small smile and nodded her head. “Yeah, I mean. The whole reason this shit happened to me was cause I got kidnapped and experimented on by Advanced Idea Mechanics.”

“Really?” Peg wondered, her body language changing a bit. Clint frowned. “Can I ask about the neck?”

“Uh... Bit of rough housing with a friend,” Clint half lied. Peg nodded, looking down at her notes again. Her eyes shifted to the window for a moment as her body language changed even more. She almost seemed more nervous then before.

“Were you warned that it may not have been a good idea in the condition you are in?”

“Yeah,” Clint mumbled, suddenly feeling highly uncomfortable with this. Peg huffed, getting to her feet and headed toward the bag she had brought in. Her movements were stiff but determined. Clint got to his feet. This didn’t seem right all of a sudden. “Uh, what’cha doin?”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Peg muttered before suddenly the lights went out. Clint jerked backwards toward the door but didn’t quite make it as Peg spun around to aim a gun at him with one hand and a syringe in the other. She looked frightened and apologetic but still determined. “I’m sorry.”

“What did you do?” Clint hissed. This woman must have been an actress at some point in her life.

“Please, they have my husband and daughter,” Peg begged. Clint’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t want to do this. Pepper is my friend and... I don’t want to betray her trust but... They’ll kill them.”

“You could have told us,” Clint snarled. Peg shook her head before moving the hand holding the syringe to show him something under her shirt. With a quick glance Clint knew it was a bomb. And judging by the size of just the top, Clint knew the bomb would pack a huge amount of damage. Peg gave a half sob and moved closer to Clint. Clint didn’t move.

“Please. I...” Peg whined. Clint huffed, knowing that he was going to turn himself in. Peg got to his side and brought the syringe up to Clint’s arm.

“How are you planning on getting me out of here?” Clint whispered, curious. Peg glanced to the window again. Clint looked as well and spotted a helicopter coming closer.

“The... The device in my bag was an EMP that was large enough to knock out the Arc Reactor and it’s back up for over a half hour,” Peg whimpered. Clint sighed as Peg slipped the syringe into Clint’s arm and depressed the liquid into Clint. “I’m so sorry.”

“If AIM does release you, make sure you tell Tony and Steve what happened,” Clint forced out even as he began to feel the effects of the drug kicking in. This was surprisingly fast. He dropped to his knees even as he heard the glass outside breaking and feet landing on the floor.

“Please, I did as you asked!” Peg’s voice came through the fading consciousness. Clint groaned, forcing himself to open his eyes. He was partially surprised to see an someone dressed head to toe in black was taking the bomb shirt off of her. Apparently whoever this was wasn’t completely evil. But AIM usually only worked with themselves in bright god awful yellow outfits. Then as someone grabbed him and started dragging him away, Clint gave in.

-LINE BREAK-

“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN CLINT’S GONE!” Bucky roared as soon as Tony finally got FRIDAY back online. ‘Peg’ had immediately ran up the stairs to find Steve and Tony as soon as Clint and the other AIM agents had left the building. She found them in the lab.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t know what to do!” Peg sobbed.

“Is your family safe now?” Steve asked, ignoring Bucky. Peg nodded.

“My brother was able to find them and pick them up. They’re waiting in a police station in New Jersey,” Peg hiccuped. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” Steve muttered with a deep sigh. Bucky snarled and Steve glanced up at him with a harsh glare. “It’s what any civilian would do when put in that position. We can’t expect everyone to be like us.”

“Fuck you,” Bucky hissed but backed down.

“How did you get in while strapped to a bomb?” Tony wondered, going through FRIDAY’s coding. Peg hiccuped again.

“I don’t know. They said I’d be able to and that was it. If I didn’t do what they wanted or tried to ask for help, they’d blow me up and then shoot my family,” Peg described. “They gave me the EMP device and the gun... And the syringe.”

“This isn’t a time to debate all that. We need to find Clint,” Bruce called.

“Well, they got a head start. And that EMP blasted out a bunch of electronics for a few blocks,” Tony grumbled, mentally mapping how best to fix this so it never happened again.

“Where’s Clint?” an angered female voice demanded. Everyone flinched before turning to see Natasha coming in. She was flanked by Wanda and Sam. Wanda looked terrified.

“Vision’s gonna need help Tony,” Sam muttered. Tony thunked his head onto his desk. Another thing to add to his list.

“Where is Clint?” Natasha hissed again. Tony winced.

“I’m working on it,” the genius mumbled.

“You, what happened?” Natasha growled, pointing to Peg. Peg cowered.

“Natasha,” Steve warned. Natasha’s eyes flicked to him before she took a deep breath and refocused on Peg.

“What happened?” she repeated.

“I... I was approached yesterday morning. Some... Someone found out I was coming here to see Pepper. I don’t know how they found out cause she isn’t written in my books. I usually mark it as my day off and come over at varied times to throw people off. And, I’ve used nearly every entrance available to the public. But... They came to me. Said I needed to go visit Pepper like normal but ask her about Hawkeye. They didn’t know he was going to be my patient as well. But, they forced the bomb on me and gave me the other tools as a just in case,” Peg called. Natasha frowned. They figured out when Peg was coming to the tower but not fully what was going on.

“Do you know who ‘they’ were?” Bruce wondered. Peg frowned. “Did they dress in yellow?”

“No. Black... Black, head to toe,” Peg replied. Everyone looked to her.

“Any symbols?” Steve asked. Peg shook her head.

“Uh, who the hell else would do this outside of AIM and Hydra?” Tony questioned.

“A new player really isn’t something we need right now,” Natasha muttered to herself.

“Could AIM have been willing to hire outside help? I mean, who else would be able to have the know how on how to shut down Tony’s reactors and back-ups,” Bucky pointed out, seeming much calmer even though his eyes golden since Peg came upstairs to tell them what happened.

“I doubt it. Usually AIM only works within their company. Mostly they engineer things like viruses, mutations, and things like that. Doing something as elaborate as this kidnapping seems rather abnormal for them,” Bruce explained with a shake of his head.

“AIM were the ones who crashed a car into our van in order to capture us originally,” Bucky mentioned. Natasha shook her own head.

“No, a car crashed into you. But AIM had another vehicle waiting in the wings. Likely that car was running on remote control,” Natasha replied. Bucky cussed and punch his hand against the glass.

“Sergeant Barnes, I feel I must warn you, if you do that again, I will enact my protocol,” FRIDAY warned. Bucky winced but backed away from the glass.

“So, we have no leads as of this moment,” Steve summarized. Everyone frowned but nodded.

“Actually,” Bucky muttered before focusing on Steve. “The wolf might be able to find Clint.”

“What?” Peg called, backing away. Sam caught her and whispered something before leading her out of the room. Bruce looked at Steve, waiting to see his reaction. Tony paused for only a moment before going back to work on fixing things and trying to scan the city for any signs of Clint. Natasha frowned, focusing on Bucky with a disbelieving look. Wanda sighed, moving to stand to the side. Steve bit his lower lip in thought.

“You might be right,” Steve decided.

“Steve. That is a big risk. If it is AIM, we’d risk giving up both Clint and Bucky,” Bruce pointed out. Steve sighed.

“What other choice do we have? They already have over a half hour head start on us. By the time Tony can start scanning everything, they could be on the other side of the states or in Europe,” Steve countered. Bruce sighed.

“We sure the wolf can do it? They took him in a copter,” Natasha reminded.

“I... The wolf scented him from Maine, and that was without me really knowing his scent,” Bucky explained. That gave everyone a pause. They had assumed that Bucky had just accidentally stumbled upon Clint and then choose Clint as a mate due to limited choices, but if the wolf choose Clint on something else, something deeper, than there might be a bigger problem to tackle in the future.

“Alright, lets get him out of there,” Steve said, nodding his head to Bruce. Bruce grimaced before heading over.

“Wait, are you sure you can keep yourself in control when we get to Clint?” Natasha questioned, focusing on Bucky.

“The wolf just wants to protect him right now... It... It doesn’t want anything other than to see him safe. Once safe, you guys can separate us again,” Bucky stated. Natasha nodded. Sighing deeply, Bruce let Bucky out of the clean room. Bucky paused then. “I’m gonna need to be wolf for this to work. Means I can’t communicate with you.”

“I got that,” Tony cried, shifting to grab at something beside the desk. He pulled out a syringe with some sort of gray liquid in it. “Nanites that can act like a tracker.”

“What if they set off another of those EMPs?” Wanda inquired, speaking for the first time. Tony frowned.

“Well. I checked it out. The EMPs didn’t knock them out. Just made it that my computers couldn’t contact them,” Tony replied.

“So, what do we do, inject that in me?” Bucky wondered, worried about having something else messing with his body. Tony shook his head.

“No. I think a... Well, no offense, a dog collar with nanites in a container attached to it,” Tony suggested, wincing when he suggested the collar.

“And do you have a collar?” Natasha asked before Steve or Bucky could even get a word in.

“Uh, no... But Clint does,” Tony whispered. Natasha snorted before walking out of the lab. She already knew that, she just didn’t want to delay things by going to get that.

“Why does Clint have a dog collar?” Steve questioned after about a minute or two of silence.

“His brother owns a dog,” Bucky muttered. The silence after that was only interrupted by Natasha returning. She must have either known exactly where it was or ran there and back.

“Change over, we need to size it,” Natasha demanded. Bucky tried to hold back his snarl but wasn’t all that successful. Natasha rolled her eyes. “Can it Fido and change.”

Bucky growled and switched over, making sure that he was in control rather than the wolf. There was no way he’d attack any of his friends again. The wolf was going to have no god damn say in it. Natasha worked quickly, getting it to the proper size on Bucky-wolf’s neck and then backing off to let Tony add the nanites. As a just in case, Tony spread some of the liquid over the collar before attaching a small vial to the collar and handing it back.

“The nanites on the collar will likely jump over to you. You won’t notice it, but at least this way if you lose the collar, we still have a chance of tracing you,” Tony explained as Natasha clasped the collar in place. Bucky-wolf shook his head, making sure it wasn’t going to bother him before nodding. He was ready.

“Okay, lets get to the garage. Traveling by motorcycle might be our best option here,” Steve called out. Tony stood.

“I’ll show you which ones to take,” the genius stated. Steve frowned. “What? I rethought over the Accords. That thing was written too soon after Sokovia to be that in depth. I had thought it was a good plan, that it’d help. But now... Now I see that it would be like working underneath Hydra parading as S.H.I.E.L.D, no offense Stalin.”

“Glad you got your head out of your ass,” Natasha replied. Tony smirked and brought the group down to a garage further down than the group knew about. Bucky-wolf sniffed, walking toward the opening.

“That way leads to outside the city. No one should notice you coming out there. But just in case, these motorcycles all have a stealth mode,” Tony explained, walking to a line of nearly ten motorcycles. “I made a bunch and have more in production for any future Avengers.”

“Interesting,” Natasha praised, heading over to one that was black with some red streaks in it. “You color code it for us as well?”

Tony blushed even as Steve headed to the one with a muted red and blue color scheme to it. Wanda went for the solid maroon colored one while Sam went to the white and silver one. Bucky-wolf huffed at the black with silver one beside Steve’s bike. At the end was a very dark purple bike. Everyone kinda stared at it for a moment. They all knew it was Clint’s.

“You do realize I can fly, right?” Sam asked even as he got on the bike.

“You do realize you can’t get up high like Rhodey, Vis and me, right?” Tony countered. Sam inclined his head. “Anyways, these things off road well and if you need to climb a rocky service, there is a button that will add steel spikes to help climb. They can’t do straight and some higher inclines might be unsafe but, it’s better than ditching them and hoofin it.”

“Thanks, Tony,” Steve answered. Bucky-wolf huffed, focusing on Steve with an anxious expression. Steve chuckled lightly.

“Come on Lassie, let’s go save out archer,” Natasha snapped. Bucky-wolf growled at the implication but did turn and bolt out of the garage, the four bikes following quickly after.

\----------

And another chapter is in the book. Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it. And I hope those who are shopping are getting good Black Friday deals. Personally, I'm waiting for Cyber Monday, lol.

Darius is doing great. Real excited that his Granddad could take him after our thanksgiving meal and now he'll stay over there till Sunday evening. Or, at least I believe that's what is planned... He's been having a blast at school and daycare. Finally hitting the stage where getting him ready in the morning is hard, but... Once dressed he's all excited. Hubby and I saw Frozen 2 last weekend. Amazing movie but dear lord, I wish someone warned us about Anna's song... I think both of us cried as it pretty much explained our past year. And getting my husband to cry over something like that is pretty much near impossible. Ugh. Baby Jason is well. Slobbering all over the place. I could care less but it seems like every other second his parents are trying to clean him up. He's a baby, gaining teeth. He's gonna drool all over the place, lol.

Can't wait to see you all next week! Halfway to the end of this... Gotta figure out what story I'm doing next... Should I do the other series I'm working on even though it needs a ton of editing, or should I go with another story that I am not anywhere close to finishing but am excited for. Well... I'm excited for both but... Never mind... Anyways. Till next week!


	14. Wolf for Good?

CHAPTER 14 - Wolf For Good?

“Wake up!” a voice snapped before ice cold water covered Clint’s body. The archer jerked up in shock, feeling odd and lethargic. He looked out to see what was going on. Something was wrong with his vision. It was muted, different and hard to understand what he was seeing. And his hearing... It improved. He could hear the person’s heart beat. A heart beat that had a small stutter to it. Clint turned to the side and caught a whiff of antiseptic, latex, bleach and something else. Something Clint couldn’t tell. “Nice to see you join the party.”

Clint tried to ask what the person meant but all that came out was a whimper. Curious, Clint tried to focus and get to his feet, but he stumbled a bit. Looking down, the archer could see why. He was a fucking wolf! Sadly, he couldn’t see what color he was. But maybe it could have been a fucking gray or something?

“You get what’s go’n on now?” the voice from before questioned before there was a loud clatter on the bars surrounding Clint. The noise made Clint jump and cower away, too loud for what he had normally been used to. “You’re gonna make us a pretty penny.”

Clint whimpered again, cowering a bit more as the person laughed. The person came forward and finally Clint could see who it was. Not that he recognized the face at all. But he could now tell that the person was a guy. The guy laughed darkly at Clint before banging on the cage again and walking away.

“Getting paid to kidnap this dude and now sell him back was the best idea ever!” the guy crooned before there was the sound of a door closing. Clint whined, looking down at himself again. Okay... How does Bucky change back!? Does he just concentrate? Trying hard, Clint focused on his human body but... No matter how hard he did, he couldn’t change back. Why couldn’t he change back? And... Why didn’t there seem to be another personality for him? Where was his wolf?

Clint was left alone for a few hours. About thirty minutes into his abandonment, Clint felt the need to go to the bathroom. No matter the fact that he was technically an animal right now, there was no way he’d piss in the fucking cage. An hour after that and Clint was working hard on balancing on two legs and not have the stream of piss come into his cage.

“Oh god, why the fuck does it smell so bad back here?” a voice different from before cried as soon as the door opened. Clint tried to chuckle. After about ten minutes he had gotten used to the smell. Lights burst on in the room and Clint couldn’t stop his yelp of pain at the sudden influx. “Jesus! The fucker pissed on the fucking floor!”

“Well, clean it up,” the first voice demanded. Clint looked up to the two men that entered. The first man came forward and looked into the cage. “Have fun?”

Clint leaped forward and tried to bit the guy’s nose. After pissing, Clint learned he did have a bit of space to fit through the bars. Much to Clint’s consternation, the man was fast and stumbled back before Clint’s teeth couldn’t even graze the guy. But, to Clint’s enjoyment, the guy did fall onto his ass. The second guy snorted.

“Fucking mutt,” the first guy snipped, kicking his foot out to hit the cage. But now Clint was used to the sound so he jerked forward again, intent on catching some part of the dude. “Damn it.”

The second guy laughed before shifting around the cage to undo some sort of locking mechanism that Clint hadn’t noticed. When they became unlocked, the cage started moving. Clint jerked around, trying to balance himself a bit better. He growled at the man, turning to see if he could attack him as well. Sadly, this guy had some sort of attachment that kept him a good distance away from the cage.

“Let’s just get him ready for the auction,” the second guy hissed. “Don’t want to make these guys wait.”

“Yeah, yeah,” the first guy snipped, slowly trailing after. Clint jerked around in his cage, trying to through the thing off balance and twist it side to side. It wasn’t as big of an impact as he had hoped. A minute later, the cage was pushed out onto a large stage. Looking out, Clint could see AIM agents, Hydra agents, what looked like Doom, and a few other groups of villains that the Avengers had faced. Clint growled at them. This really wasn’t going well.

“This is Avenger turned wolf!” a woman announced. Clint’s attention snapped to her. He hadn’t seen her before. “We all know how much we despise the Avengers! This is your chance to get one of them working for you as a pet! Bids will start at one hundred thousand!”

Clint growled at that number. He couldn’t honestly decide if the number was too low or too high. Honestly, too low was what he was going for. But, apparently, too low was a ‘good’ thing cause suddenly the price for him sky rocketed to six hundred thousand in less than a second. A minute had it at a million and a half. Two minutes, just shy of two million. The bids were starting to slow down and it seemed to mostly be a war between AIM, Doom and a ‘silent’ auctioneer.

Clint huffed, laying down. This was starting to get boring as rather than jumping by hundreds of thousands, they were dropping down to fifty thousand and sometimes ten thousands. It wasn’t much longer before Doom sadly dropped out. With a ‘dramatic’ flair, Doom loudly left. It was this distraction that allowed the shock of a large white wolf busting through the doors. Clint sniffed and knew right away it was his mate! It was Bucky!

Clint let out a loud woof. Bucky lunged through the now crazed room to get to the cage. Behind the wolf, Steve, Wanda, Sam and Natasha came in, ‘guns’ a blazing. Ignoring the battle going on behind him, Bucky changed over.

“God, Clint?” Bucky cried, looking over Clint. With a whine, Clint leaned over and rubbed his neck against Bucky’s hand. “Can... Can you switch back?”

Clint shook his head. He had tried over and over but he couldn’t figure out how to do it. Bucky winced, quickly looking over the mess behind him. The soldier cussed and turned back to the cage. Reaching forward, Bucky crushed the lock and yanked the door open. Without waiting a second, Clint lunged forward, rubbing himself against Bucky.

“Oh, Clint,” Bucky whimpered, hugging Clint close.

“Buck, have you... Is that Clint?” Steve asked, moving closer. Clint looked up at him and whimpered. Steve leaned down to get closer to Clint’s level. “Jesus, Clint. Can... Can you...”

“He said no. But, lets just get out of here. We’ll deal with that at the tower,” Bucky suggested. Steve frowned, looking back at Natasha, Wanda and Sam. Wanda had a hand covering her mouth but one could tell she knew exactly what was going on. Natasha’s face was blank, absolutely blank. Sam of course looked highly worried.

“Okay. Lets... Lets get going,” Steve ordered, getting up. Bucky sighed, gently pushing Clint off and shifting over himself. Both of them rubbed against each other. Steve sighed but thankfully, Bucky was able to nudge Clint toward the bikes outside. Clint huffed, glaring at the bikes. Bucky gently woofed back and Clint found that he knew there was a purple motorcycle waiting in Tony’s garage. Clint glanced at Bucky, surprised. Wanting to test this, Clint made some random noises asking Bucky if Tony and Bruce knew how to fix this. Bucky huffed back a nope before pausing, turning to stare at Clint. Yup, exactly what Clint thought. They could communicate together.

But that revelation was going to have to wait as Steve started his bike and spun out to leave with the others following. Bucky nodded toward the bikes, wondering if Clint could keep up. Clint moved forward before woofing a quick yes and then running after the bikes. To Clint’s excitement, he could keep up with the bikes. Letting out a howl, Clint ran on. Beside him, Bucky let out his own howl of joy. Even though the others weren’t wolves, both of them could tell that the Avengers were part of their pack.

\----------

“He can’t change back?” Tony repeated, staring at Clint who was sitting on his haunches watching everyone. Bucky sat beside him, a pair of sweatpants covering his lower half. To their surprise, Bucky could understand Clint even if Bucky was human. It was kinda cool. “Why is he different?”

“I think I might be able to explain it,” Cho murmured, coming forward. “I hadn’t been able to do blood work on the day of Mrs. Pott’s and Agent Barton’s appointment. But now... His hCG levels are still increasing at an astonishing rate. I believe Agent Barton is pregnant.”

Clint stilled. If he was human he likely would have paled in stunned silence. Around him, everyone shouted in various degrees of shock and surprise. Bucky wrapped his arm around Clint’s body, distracting the archer. Clint glanced at him with a questioning gaze. Bucky frowned and mouthed ‘are you okay?’ Clint thought about it and then huffed a ‘not really.’ What could you say in a situation like this? Clint shouldn’t have had to worry about any of this. Shouldn’t have to worry about being pregnant, worry about being a wolf.

“Now, don’t get me wrong. We are very much in uncharted territories here. By all rights, his levels show the indications he may be pregnant. But, speaking to Dr. Goldstien, during mating season, female wolves have higher levels of hormones to attract and entice the male to mate with her. The levels will spike up and down as she readies her body to hold a pup, but, I am unsure if this is what is fully happening,” Cho told them. “Since I was unable to get a sample of blood before Agent Barton fully changed over, this test may just be that type of false positive. Or maybe even a chemical pregnancy.”

“What’s that?” Bucky wondered. Cho sighed.

“Given all the changes that have recently happened to Agent Barton’s body and hormone levels, if a pregnancy had happened, he could have already miscarried,” Cho replied. Bucky paled even as Clint whimpered in pain. That didn’t sound pleasant at all. “Or with the numerous changes to Agent Barton’s body in so little a time, he may also be unable to change just because his body is trying to protect itself. It just so happened, it chose to do so while Agent Barton is a wolf.”

“We should hopefully have some more answers in a week. That will allow things to settle down and out tests will be more conclusive,” Bruce softly added.

Clint got to his ‘paws’ and walked off without another sound. Everyone thankfully allowed him to do so. After everything that happened, it wasn’t surprising that Clint would want to be alone. Unsure where else to go, Clint found himself take the stairs to Bucky’s floor and opening the apparently still damaged door. With a huff of a laugh, Clint slipped inside and headed toward the bedroom. Once there he paused, looking up at the bed with pause. Did he want to get in there? Especially after what happened to him? Sniffing the air, Clint decided, yes he wanted to get on the bed.

A few hours later, Clint woke to something sliding onto the bed with him. He glanced over and noted it was a white wolf. Bucky. Giving him a silent whimper, Clint shifted a bit to allow Bucky better room on the bed. With a sigh, Bucky laid down, his head laying gently on Clint’s stomach. Clint whined and placed his head near Bucky’s back. A minute or so later, both of them drifted off to sleep.

\----------

Days passed by slowly after that. Clint still headed down to the lab every day for testing. Dr. Goldstien finally got permission to come into the tower to check on the two ‘wolves.’ Even after watching Bucky change himself into a wolf, the doc didn’t seem all that phased with working on the duo. And like Cho had said before. Both Clint and Bucky were in good health given the circumstances with both of them. Clint’s hCG levels were fluctuating like they would in the wild but Goldstien sadly informed Clint that yes... He had indeed miscarried. That was a painful blow to Clint but he was at least thankful that Bucky hadn’t been around to hear that. But, Goldstien added, wolves could become pregnant again only a week after the miscarriage. And it had taken nearly a week to learn this.

“So, when can we expect Merida back?” Tony questioned while going over the facts that Cho and Goldstien had provided based on their examinations. Bucky, who accepted a new arm from Tony, and Clint looked up at that. Yeah, that would be nice to know. Bruce sighed, rubbing his fingers over the bridge of his nose.

“With a day or so, his body will be start to level out. He could either change then, or wait a few more days. It’s hard to really tell,” Goldstien informed.

“Outside of that first night and day, I stayed as a wolf for just about two weeks,” Bucky pointed out.

“I thought that was by choice,” Bruce responded, turning from his own notes to stare at Bucky. The soldier shrugged.

“Honestly, I never tried to change back, just let the wolf take over until I was exhausted and staring at Clint,” Bucky admitted.

“When you’re a wolf, do you still feel the presence of another self?” Bruce wondered. Bucky nodded. “And Clint says he doesn’t?”

“Yeah,” Bucky confirmed. Bruce took a deep breath and went back to his notes, jotting things down quickly. “You think that’s significant?”

“It might be... When you got bit, it was when... It was by a wolf. When Clint got bit... It was you as a human, even though the wolf mindset had taken over,” Bruce explained.

“So you think that if Bucky had been a wolf at the biting, Clint would have a split personality like Bucky?” Tony questioned. Bruce sighed, yet again rubbing the bridge of his nose.

“I’m not positive and we really don’t want to test this on any more people. It could just be that Bucky has the serum and Clint doesn’t. I don’t know. It’s just a thought,” Bruce groaned. “We... We are in completely new territory for both of them with no notes to back up too. While yes, Clint is human and we can use the information AIM had gathered, Clint was also turned partly female days before. Those chemical changes in his body could have had an effect on the wolf transformation.”

“So, it is entirely possible that Clint will never change back?” Bucky questioned. Bruce winced even as Clint let out a pathetic whine. Bucky just reached over and began petting the archer.

“Again, this is new territory. Anything is possible at this point,” Bruce mentioned. Bucky sighed, looking to Clint even as the archer dropped himself down onto all fours in misery. “We’ll do whatever we can.”

“The JSC has already gotten a hold of a few other people affected by AIM. I’m working on getting permission to get them here. Apparently cause I already got you two, I don’t need any more,” Tony growled, rolling his eyes. “Ross is being a dick about it all.”

“Can’t you just go to him?” Bruce inquired. Tony shook his head before glancing at Clint.

“Ross already knows I got him... If... If I leave, we risk him coming here and finding everyone,” Tony explained. Clint looked up to the genius before getting back to his feet (paws). Slowly, he wandered out of the lab. Bucky sighed, getting to his own feet.

“We need to figure this out soon. I doubt either of us will be able to handle this for the rest of our lives,” Bucky stated before turning and stalking after his mate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter bites the dust.  
This week has been strange. Started our annual Stitch Trouble (copy of Elf on a Shelf without the Elf). Can't really think of what to do as of right now... Hope I'll figure it out soon. Anyways, Darius has been great. Currently upstairs drumming away and making a ton of noise. He seriously has no idea how to keep his voice down. Which has been bad for me this week as I've had migraines each day. But, best way to get him slightly calm was to give him a tablet or phone. Wish it could have been something else but no. That's the only way to keep him quiet for a good amount of time. Hubby has been spending his nights in Darius's bed so that I don't get either of them sick. Darius is loving it. He says he's having fun at school and at daycare. And poor hubby is 'insulted' that whenever he goes to pick up Darius, Darius runs to hug me, blowing by him. It makes me feel good considering when Clint went to this same daycare he did the same to me. Baby Jason is doing well. Apparently giving his parents trouble sleeping but otherwise, good. Pretty much set on a schedule of when to do certain things. And getting shaken out of that routine can throw him and his parents into a bit of a tizzy. But, that's general with babies.  
Well, that about sums everything up! Can't wait to see you all next week.


	15. Wolf Be Gone

CHAPTER 15 - Wolf Be Gone

Bucky found Clint yet again on his floor. The archer/wolf was curled up on the bed. With a huff, Bucky shifted forms and headed over to Clint. At the sound of the shift, Clint perked up and looked to Bucky. He said nothing as Bucky-wolf came over and jumped onto the bed. Bucky-wolf came over and nuzzled Clint who willingly nuzzled back. They did this for a moment before Bucky began to feel the wolf fighting to take control. It took him a moment before he realized, the wolf wanted to mate with Clint... In this form. Bucky whimpered, backing away and off the bed. Clint sat up.

_“Bucky?”_ Clint whined. Bucky shifted and Clint immediately saw the soldier’s problem. The soldier was getting ready to have sex again. Clint whimpered, no words behind it. Bucky looked up.

“I... I can’t,” Bucky informed. Clint nodded, moving to lay himself further on the bed. Bucky slowly got to his feet, his body fighting to shift back over and jump Clint. “Clint, I..”

_“I understand... Wish I could help,”_ Clint softly rumbled. Bucky whined, his voice high and keening. Clint perked up, his backside beginning to feel like it wanted something in it. That made Clint move around, uncomfortable. He must have sent off some sort of scent as suddenly Clint found himself pinned to the bed by a white form.

Sex as a wolf was much different than sex as a human. For one, apparently, when Clint was in wolf form, he actually did have a vagina... That was something Clint was going to bitch about during his next meeting with Dr. Goldstien. It hadn’t been mentioned before. And boy was that thing very receptive to feeling a dick inside it. Also, Bucky’s pounding into Clint was much stronger as a wolf and Clint didn’t really have a good way to keep himself still. The sheets under them shifted until Clint found his front paws right at the edge of the bed.

_“Bucky!”_ Clint barked, trying to make the wolf pause before they fell. Either Bucky didn’t hear or the wolf didn’t care cause there was another jerk and Clint found himself dumped to the floor, Bucky now not in him anymore.

_“Sorry,”_ Bucky whimpered, jumping off the bed and rubbing against Clint until he got his paws back underneath him. With a sigh, Bucky headed back to start all over again. Both of them were overstimulated at this point so Bucky didn’t last that much longer. Clint found he could allow the knot to grow to a point where Bucky was whimpering at the size. Then, Clint clenched and both of them came really hard. So hard that it was surprise to both of them that they hadn’t collapsed into an awkward pile on the ground. Bucky still hung on Clint’s back. For a moment, both were comfortable with this but soon they began wondering how to deal with the rest of the thirty minutes it took for the knot to shrink. _“Uh...”_

_“Well, this is awkward... I don’t think I can hold us for thirty minutes,”_ Clint grumbled. Bucky leaned a bit against Clint’s back. He wondered what would happen if he tried to shift. His first attempt was a fail as was the second. Apparently he was gonna be stuck as a wolf till his knot went down. _“You can’t shift, can you?”_

_“No,”_ Bucky agreed with a woof. Clint’s head dropped and the movement jerked Bucky to the side. A moment later, Bucky found himself with his three paws down on the floor but his dick still inside Clint. Clint turned his head a bit to see Bucky there. _“Huh.”_

_“Well... That’s kinda cool,”_ Clint smartly huffed. Bucky couldn’t stop himself from laughing, though it more sounded like he was letting out a bunch of soft barks. Clint followed, neither one of them able to stop for a bit as the other’s laugh got them going again. When they finally calmed down, Clint moved a step forward. Rather than feeling pain, Bucky felt his backside moving with Clint. It nearly overbalanced him. _“Did... Did I just drag you?”_

_“Uh... Yeah,”_ Bucky softly growled. Clint huffed a laugh out before moving again. And again, Bucky’s rear followed. This time he had to shift his front paw a bit to hold himself up. _“Clint.”_

_“Hmm?”_ Clint playfully snarled. Bucky snapped his ass back, jerked Clint backwards. Clint barked out a laugh and tugged his backside again. Bucky fell over this time. With his own playful growl, the duo spent the next half hour trying to ‘one up’ each other with the tugs. At the end of it, Bucky was the one doing the tugging and he had gotten far to close to a wall.

THUNK

_“Ow,”_ Bucky whined. Clint cracked up with barks of laughter. Bucky huffed, shaking his head. He turned to look at Clint again and just watched the other wolf. After a minute or so more of laughing, Clint calmed down.

_“You okay?”_ Clint finally woofed. Bucky nodded and sat down on his haunches. No need to change back when it was just the two of them. _“You know... I’ve been thinking. Your coat is white... So...”_

_“What is yours?”_ Bucky finished with a huff. Clint nodded. _“Blond. Almost like a golden color.”_

_“I look like a golden retriever?”_ Clint whimpered. Bucky shook his head.

_“No. A golden wolf.”_

\----------

Clint and Bucky ended up sleeping curled up in the bed in their wolf forms. Well, Bucky more or less stayed in his wolf form to keep Clint company. So it was a surprise to both of them when they woke up cuddled as humans.

“Holy shit!” Clint cried, pulling back. Bucky laughed.

“You changed back!” he preened. Clint just blinked rapidly, looking down at his body. Slowly, he sat up in bed. Feeling awkward now that he was back. Which was strange as he hadn’t felt all that awkward in his wolf form. Just left over affects from the drugs that had been used on him.

“I thought I was gonna be like that forever,” Clint admitted, beginning to rub his hands over his chest. Bucky whined, getting up himself and leaning over Clint’s arm. “It... It scared me.”

“It scared all of us,” Bucky informed, pulling the archer in for a hug. Clint leaned into it, relishing the feeling of human skin on human skin. “We should probably head down to the lab and let everyone know you’re back.”

“Probably,” Clint agreed, twisting his head a bit to rub himself against Bucky. Bucky sucked in a breath, stunned. He half expected that to spur the wolf inside of him but... It didn’t. Frowning, Bucky focused on himself.

“Clint...” Bucky softly said, distracting Clint from his rubbing. Clint paused, looking to the soldier with a hmm. “I... I can’t feel the wolf.”

Clint reared back, staring at Bucky in surprise. Bucky looked at him in minor horror. Without really thinking about it, Bucky shifted. And it was easy. No fight at all. He quickly shifted back, staring at Clint in a mix of horror, surprise and glee.

“Bucky?”

“I... It’s just me. No... No wolf!” Bucky called.

\----------

“So you’re certain the wolf is gone?” Tony asked for the fifth time since Clint and Bucky had returned to the lab.

“How many times do I have to say it, yes,” Bucky snipped. Tony held his hands up in defense.

“It doesn’t make sense,” Bruce muttered, looking over the scans he had quickly taken of Bucky after they first mentioned everything. There was a minor alteration to Bucky’s brain waves but nothing that would indicate much of anything.

“Hence why we mentioned it,” Clint explained, again.

“And you had sex, correct?” Cho questioned, perusing her notes. Clint and Bucky blushed but nodded. It was getting really awkward with how many people knew about their sex life. Especially how many of their friends knew. “And it was in wolf form?”

“Yeah,” Clint answered, his blush deepening. Bucky cleared his throat and looked away. Neither of them really wanted to get into specifics of that. Nor did they want to reveal their excitement of trying it again at a later point.

“I think maybe the wolf inside Bucky needed validation that Bucky could care for himself,” Cho suggested. The room turned and stared at her. She paused, looking at them all before she placed her notes on the table nearest her. “Think of it this way. When Bucky was first bit, even though he is an adult, the wolf genomes may have thought he was a pup. So, a new personality with wolf traits appeared. Clint never got this personality because he already had a wolf who could lead him and show him what to do. By Bucky willingly having sex with Clint, in wolf form, the wolf personality may have felt it’s job was done and vanished.”

“Eerily, that makes sense,” Bruce mentioned, rubbing his chin a bit. Then he took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “When it comes to the other guy and myself, the other guy is a protector of sorts. Yes, he’s angry and violent but he is that way because I get scared. When I stop being scared, he backs down. So, if I ever had the ability to remove fear, likely the other guy would vanish as well.”

“But, you can’t get rid of fear,” Clint whispered. Bruce nodded with a self deprecating look to the floor.

“And I won’t try. I’ll just keep doing what I’ve been doing. I have to accept that the other guy is a part of me. Even if I don’t really want it,” Bruce replied with a shrug. Tony moved over and patted the other scientist on the shoulder. No one had really realized that Bruce had long since stopped trying to fix himself and instead was trying to back trace his blood and Steve’s blood to see if anyone can figure out their serums that way.

“Okay, so if wolfie spirit dude thing is gone... What does that mean for the two of them?” Tony wondered, getting back to the first issue. Cho sighed and grabbed her notes again. This wasn’t her area of expertise. Bruce grimaced, looking to Clint and Bucky who just stared at the rest of them.

“You said the JSC found some of the other people affected? Did you ever get permission to work on them?” Clint questioned. It’s been close to maybe a month or so since Bucky had been turned, so that gave them plenty of time to search. Especially since one, these people likely didn’t know how to hide themselves well. And two, there would be at least one or two reports of their friends or family mentioning their sudden ability to change shaped. Tony nodded turning back to his computer. There was a reason he hadn’t mentioned anything to the group.

“They found a panther change, a bear change, an eagle change, and... Well, sadly a deceased shark change,” Tony informed. Bruce looked to Tony. This was the first he had heard of it.

“That doesn’t equal out to how many people had been taken,” Bucky muttered. Tony sighed, ignoring the varied versions of betrayed looks he was getting.

“At the time of your attack, eight people were actively being kept. So, we are messing three more people. A snake change, a monkey change and a deer change,” Tony listed.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Bruce accused. Tony winced. He had informed the JSC of the missing people but he had forgotten to mention it to his teammates.

“After some perusal of notes... And some blood samples from the people, I had found a way to change them back.”

“That’s good news, right?” Clint asked. Tony winced again, turning to look away at his friends. Bruce headed over to Tony’s terminal and started looking through what the genius was talking about. But Bucky understood quickly what Tony meant.

“It won’t work for us, will it?” Bucky finished. Tony nodded.

“They were changed through chemicals and science... You were both changed by an exchange of... Something. I’m still working on that part,” Tony mumbled.

“I may have to get a closer look at when you bite something,” Bruce muttered, his attention mostly taken by what Tony had found. “I almost wonder if there is like a toxin or something in the bite that allowed the change.”

“Great, I poisoned Clint,” Bucky grumbled. Clint couldn’t stop his snort or surprise at that. Bruce looked up. He hadn’t realized how that sounded until Bucky spoke.

“It... I don’t know but. The notes don’t seem to conclude that it’s saliva based or even blood based. There was some containment issues at the beginning that had blood and saliva being spilt onto a few of the guards. None of them experienced anything like what happened with the two of you,” Tony explained with a shake of his head. “No one was ever bitten by those changed but there had been some lab accidents with samples and shit.”

“But the main point is, there is no cure for us right now,” Clint summarized. Tony nodded.

“And as we said before. Even if the cure I had found could have worked on someone who was bitten and changed, there is no guarantee it would work on either of you,” Tony stated. “With the super soldier serum and the... Well, sex change. You both have been in essence turned, not human.”

“Tony,” Bruce chided. “What he means is you’ve both experienced too many changes for us to have any base line to return you too. If we tried to fix one thing, we’d likely have to fix everything.”

“I wouldn’t mind that,” Clint grumbled.

“It would be a far more painful process than growing the organs,” Cho pointed out. Clint grimaced. “Likely you’d either get an infection from the organs dissolving in your body, or we’d have to do surgery to remove them, or you’d expel them on your own.”

“’Expel them?’” Clint echoed.

“Shit them out,” Tony snorted. Clint paled.

“Sadly the most likely options are surgery or they dissolve. If we do surgery we risk damaging other organs that are nearby and you’d likely still have some hormonal imbalances for a while. If they dissolve, yes we run the risk of infection but we also have a chance that it would seem like didn’t you fully changed back,” Cho continued. “As for you Sergeant Barnes, you would lose the Super Soldier Serum and... Sadly that is the only thing that is allowing your body to not reject the implantation of your metal arm.”

“Which, when are you gonna accept the one I built you?” Tony questioned, turning a bit to look at the soldier. Bucky frowned. He hadn’t actually known that Tony was doing that, never mind actually having finished anything. “I already figured out how to make it shift to a paw too!”

“Are you fucking kidding?” Bucky hissed, too upset over everything else that had happened to be thankful for Tony even trying this. “When did you have time to work on that?”

“Well... Mostly it was Vision and FRIDAY who did it,” Tony admitted before heading deeper into the lab and grabbing a silver arm. Clint stood up to go check it out.

“How does it shift over as well?” Clint wondered.

“Well, the neural links in Bucky’s shoulder that allow the arm to move sends a signal out. FRIDAY noticed that during her scans before. Using that signal, it tells the plates to rearrange themselves,” Tony informed. Bucky now got up to look at it. “It should go on like the last arm and feel no different.”

“Fine, give it,” Bucky snapped reaching out to take it. Tony handed it over and without really thinking about it, Bucky attached it to his shoulder. He quickly went through his normal checks to make sure it was placed on correctly and then looked to Tony.

“Well, try it out,” Tony encouraged. Bucky rolled his eyes before shifting and indeed the arm changed over as well. It was a bit slower than Bucky’s bodily shift but it still changed into a wolf’s paw. Bucky huffed at it before trying to walk. It was awkward as he had gotten used to walking with three paws. Clint snorted and shifted as well, using his body to help Bucky figure out his balance. “Well, change back.”

Bucky and Clint both looked up to stare at the genius. They hadn’t grabbed excess clothes and their other clothes laid in tatters on the floor. Tony glanced around at them before giving them a sheepish look. Bruce snorted and over to the ‘excess’ cloths area that sat in the lab in case Bruce Hulked out. Digging around, he grabbed some pants and tossed them to the two wolves. Collecting them, the duo then changed back, shifting the pants to cover themselves. Like before, Bucky’s arm took a bit longer to change over but it did.

“Huh,” Bucky said, staring at it and flexing the hand again. “That... Thanks.”

“You are very welcome Sergeant Barnes,” FRIDAY replied before Tony could say anything. It was the AI’s idea to attempt this. “I am pleased to see that it worked as designed.”

“Well, now you’re gonna have to learn how to walk on all four paws,” Clint joked. Bucky snorted and shifted over to wolf, thankful to not have actually put on the pants. Clint followed.

_“Let’s get to learning!”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another one bites the dust,
> 
> Darius has been annoying all week. Especially right now. Right now he is in bed, trying to go to sleep but he just won't settle, so I have to hear him crying for something he's already been denied. Otherwise, he has been annoying in the fact of, whenever he is with someone else, they can get him to go on the potty. I have tried seven times today, each time with him asking to go. Not once did he go or even seem to attempt to go. While three other times today he lied to me about having gone. Argh. I really dislike that kids express themselves to a comfortable environment when it is something that bothers me. WHY CAN'T HE DO IT FOR ME? -_- Oh well. Baby Jason, we have just learned, is having too many large bottles of formula and no way to increase food intake. Stressing out his parents as he refuses to be limited. And while all this is happening, Baby Jason's dad and I are stuck at the house while my buddy and Baby Jason's mom are off working holiday hours at a toy store and restaurant. Course, the hours are only going to get longer before the holiday season is over.
> 
> Okay. That's everything! Have a good week, until next time!


	16. Messed Up

CHAPTER 16 - Messed Up

It took Bucky most of the rest of the day to learn how to ‘walk’ on all four paws. It was mostly a shuffle as if Bucky’s wolf body couldn’t hold the leg up. But they had earlier noticed that Bucky could handle the weight in his wolf form just as well as his human form. Now that the shuffle walk was completed, Clint said they had to turn it into a regular walk. But Bucky was able to get ‘permission’ to save that for the next day. That night Clint was able to convince Bucky to have wolf sex with him again and it was then that Clint realized, he couldn’t hold the metal leg up. But they made it work, somehow.

The next day it wasn’t just Clint and Bucky who ended up in the training room. They had company of some of the others that were currently in the tower. But Clint did notice one absence. Natasha. He hadn’t really seen her since they found out he was female but he knew she was around cause everyone made mention to it once or twice. But, Clint wasn’t going to force her to be near him.

Training Bucky to actually walk rather than shuffle was much harder than Clint and Bucky had expected it to be. Sam and Steve had immensely enjoyed watching the attempts. Bucky had to spend most of his focus on getting his metal leg to move that sometimes he forgot to tell the other legs where to go and so he kept tangling himself up. After a while, Clint snarled at the chuckling duo. It had become noticeable that Bucky wasn’t enjoying the laughter. But Sam and Steve didn’t leave at Clint’s warning. Just turned to silently watch. Wanda also came down to visit and spent a great deal of time just petting Clint’s fur. Natasha, to Clint pleasure, visited for half a second before leaving again with a shake of her head.

_“Why is this so hard?”_ Bucky snarled to himself, carefully taking another step forward. _“This should be so god damn easy! It was easy when I had three!”_

_“You also had the wolf guiding you then. Now, you’re on your own,”_ Clint chuffed. Bucky’s muzzle twitched into an angered face but he didn’t dispute the archer.

“It’s be real nice to no what you guys are saying,” Sam called. Clint glanced to him before turning back to Bucky.

“I don’t think that will happen,” Steve snorted.

“Come on, we have a rule against other languages, why not this?” Sam moaned. With a huff, Clint shifted back.

“What, you don’t want us to ever speak when wolves? Cause that ain’t ever gonna happen,” Clint snipped. His tone made Steve and Wanda stiffen in surprise. Sam rolled his eyes, not realizing the warning signs that Clint was giving him.

“You’re taking this far to literal. I just kinda wanna know, ain’t gonna really ban ya,” the air man replied. Steve tried to chuckle, hoping it would calm the archer down. It didn’t seem to help. “It’s just a joke.”

“Honestly Sam, I don’t care,” Clint retorted. Sam’s eyebrows rose in surprise as Steve shifted his weight, wondering if he should get involved. Wanda turned to silently watch the exchange while Bucky refused to acknowledge what they were saying. “Bucky and I have been tolerating all this rather well considering what has been happening. We seriously don’t need anyone to laugh at our expense.”

With that the archer shifted to wolf and padded off. Bucky turned, watching his mate leave before glancing at Sam who simply stood there, stunned. Steve looked to the retreating form of his friend and then back to Sam. Wanda sighed.

“We really should be more considerate,” she stated before turning and leaving herself. Sam winced.

“Didn’t think it was gonna be an issue,” the air man whispered, looking to Bucky for help. Bucky huffed and began to practice even more on walking. After nearly a full day he was finally getting the hang of it, but he still didn’t feel all that safe with wandering around the tower just yet. Likely he’d be at it an hour or so more before he’d be ready to leave. With a shrug himself, Sam turned and left.

“I’m sorry about Sam. And that I kept laughing as well,” Steve muttered. Bucky said nothing, just kept practicing his walk. With a sigh, Steve left as well. Once alone, Bucky attempted to try and run around the room. That ended up not going all that well as the poor soldier face planted. Grunting, Bucky shifted back.

“Fuck four paws,” he growled to himself before going to the pants that Clint and he had set up before. He dressed quickly and headed for the elevator.

Five days later, Bucky had gotten used to walking on four paws but he was now currently working on running. It was going as well as his first attempt, even with Clint guiding. But for this day, he was done training and just wanted to rest. Even though he wanted to head back up to his room, the elevator doors opened on the communal floor. He huffed, figuring Clint wanted him to eat as he hadn’t done so most of the day, and walked to the kitchen anyways. Most of the group was waiting there and they looked very tense. Bucky almost joked that they should all calm down but Steve just shook his head, miserably.

“I’m gonna need the arm back,” Tony grumbled. Bucky paused.

“What?”

“I need the arm and for you to be a wolf again,” Tony added. Bucky gave everyone a confused look. 

“Rhodey can’t stall Ross any longer. He’s coming to check on Tony’s progress with Clint,” Sam mentioned. Bucky frowned but quickly disconnected his arm and handed it over. Tony winced.

“I’m sorry.”

“I get it. Where do you want me?” Bucky instead asked. Tony sighed.

“I’m gonna put both of you in the clean rooms again,” Tony replied. Bucky nodded before looking to the others.

“And them?”

“We’re gonna head out. Probably should actually get back to.... To...” Steve stuttered. Bucky huffed.

“To saving people. I get it. Be... Be safe.”

“You too.”

\----------

Bucky and Clint resettled themselves into the clean rooms. Steve, Natasha, Sam and Wanda escaped the tower soon after learning Ross was coming. Bruce debated following as well cause there had to be no need to have him there anymore but everyone agreed, he’d likely have been called into help anyways. Bruce, Cho, Dr. Goldstien and Tony all set themselves up in the labs, acting as if still going over the information. While they were still looking for potential ideas on how to change Clint and Bucky back to only being human, they had mostly given up. For half a moment, Clint wondered if they should call Dr. Cart but Tony admitted they shouldn’t mention Clint’s sex change. Just that his blood had some type of change to it.

Clint had positioned himself in the front corner, closest to Bucky, acting as if he was watching over everything. Bucky meanwhile chose the same corner, laying his head miserably on his solitary paw. To all of their luck, Dr. Goldstien agreed to not reveal anything to Ross about what the wolf actually was and what else happened to Clint. But, he did mention that soon, he should get back to his practice and deal with his other animal patients and only do monthly or biweekly checks on the changed duo. In the end, they only had two minutes after ‘getting into position’ before FRIDAY called out to them.

“Sir, Stupid Head is arriving,” the AI intoned. There was a moment’s pause at that before Clint just busted out laughing. Tony smirked but said nothing about it. A minute later, Rhodey led Ross and a small team of JSC agents down into the lab. Clint got to his feet, as what everyone would have expected. Even Bucky got to his and began growling. Bruce, Cho and Goldstien turned to see who had come in. Goldstien and Bruce tensed at the sight of all the military agents but otherwise seemed fine. Thank god the JSC wasn’t going to go after Bruce. As long as Hulk made no appearances, he was good.

“Nope! No, too many people!” Tony snapped the second the agents slipped into the lab. Rhodey gave a small snort and headed over to check on Clint. No one had really given the army man an update of what had happened since he left. Ross rolled his eyes.

“Get used to it. They will be staying,” Ross retorted. Tony huffed and turned back to his monitor, doing a quick double check to make sure the others safely made it out. “So, it did end up being a stupid wolf?”

Tony turned back to see Ross had gone over to the room that Bucky was housed in. Bucky growled even louder at the man but otherwise tried not to react. Rhodey backed away with a frown. Bruce cleared his throat, for once being brave enough to speak in front of military agents (outside of Rhodey and Sam). “I disagree with that. Notes state that not everyone had the changes like the ones you found. He actually might be a person underneath all that.”

“And your cure does not work on this one?” Ross huffed, turning to stare at the genius, ignoring almost everyone else in the room.

“The cure handed to the JSC is meant for one type of serum. We believe the wolf in there was given another. That means a completely different cure,” Cho corrected. Ross rolled his eyes before turning to Clint.

“And this one?”

“He’s staying,” Tony snapped. Ross turned, an eyebrow raised.

“He is a criminal who escaped his agreed upon imprisonment,” Ross pointed out. Clint sighed.

“Would it mean anything if I said I was taken?” he wondered. Ross turned back to him.

“There was no sign of you having been taken,” Ross countered. Clint shrugged.

“Caught me in the backyard,” the archer replied. Ross just chuckled and shook his head. Clint’s face contorted into anger. “You saw me in a cage when you attacked AIM!”

“You could have jumped in there to avoid being caught,” Ross stated.

“Oh for god’s sake! He was a prisoner there too!” Tony shouted. Ross turned on him.

“Go ahead, keep defending him, see where that gets you,” the man growled. Tony stilled but glared at the man. “I want him locked up.”

“You can’t!” Cho cried. Bruce stiffened, trying to hold back Hulk who was coming forward, intent on protecting his friends. Ross ignored her and instead turned on Clint.

“And no deals this time. You’re going straight to the Raft,” Ross hissed. Clint paled. With a pleased smile, Ross turned to the agents he had brought. He nodded his head toward Clint and then headed over to the doorway. Clint backed away.

“You don’t have to do this. He’s been locked up fine here,” Rhodey tried. Ross laughed.

“You seriously expect me to trust his ex-friends to watch over him?” Tony and Rhodey bristled but didn’t reply. Bruce, Cho and Goldstien shifted uncomfortably and looked between the groups but said nothing. Ross then nodded to the door. “Open the door or you will sent to the Raft as well.”

“Tony,” Clint warned. Tony focused on him and let out a soft gasp when the archer nodded with a determined face.

“FRIDAY,” Tony whined. A moment later, the room holding Clint opened and the JSC agents rushed in. They didn’t even give Clint a chance to possibly fight back before they viciously attacked him, bringing him to his knees before handcuffing him with a set of super soldier cuffs. Clint gasped, trying to catch his breath even as he was dragged to his feet. “You don’t have to do this!”

“Yes... I think I do,” Ross chuckled, a pleased smile on his face. He then turned to the wolf. “That thing can be yours. We don’t need it.”

Tony lunged forward as if to attack but Rhodey was already standing beside him. He caught him and then shook his head. It wouldn’t do to fight Ross now. They had to wait. Tony huffed but allowed the JSC agents to walk away with Clint in the hands. The archer glanced back quickly before being led out but said nothing more. Ross chuckled, amused.

“Next time, don’t hold me off so long. Maybe I would have allowed you to watch over your friend,” Ross told them before heading out. Tony waited till the doors closed before jerking forward.

“FUCK YOU!” he shouted before throwing the items off the nearest desk. Bucky shifted back. His face pained and worried. It was then that most of them realized, he just willingly watched his mate get dragged away. He trusted them to keep Clint safe, and they failed.

“Are we...”

“We can’t get him back. If we do, Ross will know,” Rhodey answered before Bucky could even finished. Bucky let out a loud whine that sounded more wolf like than human like. Rhodey sighed. They were in a tough spot right now. If they went after Clint, they could all become fugitives of the law. They can’t inform the others as Ross would know they had contact with them. “I don’t know how we’ll be able to get him back at this point.”

\----------

Clint was dragged into a large prison transport van. It was surrounded by no less then ten agents and there were five agents from the lab, plus Ross. The archer refused to fight them at this point. There was nothing he could even attempt to try here. If he ran, Ross would find him. Changing into a wolf risked AIM finding him. And unconsciously, Clint knew that none of the others could save him at this point. He was well and truly fucked.

“I’m surprised you aren’t fighting this, Agent Barton,” Ross chuckled as Clint was getting harshly strapped into a seat in the van. A van that seemed specially designed for some type of dangerous prison transportation. Trying not to once again be insulted at the lack of fear of his ability, Clint just closed his eyes, fighting the desire to growl viciously at Ross. Doing anything now would just make this all worse. “Finally given into your fate as a traitor to your country?”

“If protecting people makes me a traitor, I’d do it every god damn day,” Clint whispered as the JSC agents backed away.

“What was that?” Ross questioned, moving closer to hear Clint. But the archer refused to respond. He was not going to give Ross the satisfaction that he was looking for. “That’s what I thought.”

Agents poured into the seats all around the van. Considering how many agents had stood outside only nine agents could fit into the van, outside of the driver and Ross. Clint couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the fact that Ross had gotten into the passenger seat. Typically it was too dangerous for something like that but then again... Ross did seem a bit like an idiot. As the van started to drive away from the tower, Clint looked back. Through the small window, the archer could see Pepper and Happy worryingly standing outside the doorway, watching.

“So, have fun on your little tryst of freedom?” Ross called to the back. Clint hung his head. He would not rise to Ross’s bait. But, the Raft was at least six hours away from Stark Tower. Over six hours of verbal torment. Yeah, Clint was gonna give in at some point. It kinda was inevitable. “You had to have known that we would have found you eventually, even without Stark holding you in his lab for ‘testing.’”

Clint rolled his eyes as Ross even did the damn air quotes over testing. It was pathetic. But again, he refused to rise to Ross’s bait. Then one of the agents randomly kicked out at Clint, catching him in the chest when the archer tried to jump backwards to avoid it. His ‘humph’ of breath had Ross chuckling yet again. Clint couldn’t stop his growl this time and to the agents, in the back with him, they noted it sounded more animalistic than one would think. “I think that’s gonna count as cruel and unusual punishment.”

“Not if we say you started fighting us. And given your history, well, lets say the case would be on our side,” the agent who kicked him mocked. Clint huffed, turning to look at Ross but the man didn’t seem to be paying any mind to the agent’s attention. Rolling his eyes, Clint caught another kick, this time to his left knee. There was a small crack and Clint grunted harshly in pain. Dislocation, lovely. The abuse continued for most of the ride and Clint, for some reason, found himself unconsciously protecting his gut.

“What’s this idiot doing?” the driver suddenly muttered after at least two hours or so of driving. The abuse paused and Clint blearily looked up, curious.

“Ditch it,” Ross ordered. The driver nodded and took a sharp turn that had the agent right across from him used the advantage to send his elbow into Clint’s nose with a loud crack. Clint’s head slammed backwards into the wall as well, hard enough to have stars floating through his vision for a moment. Fuck, that hurt. And blood quickly began pouring out of his, what Clint assumed to be, broken nose. He leaned forward, making sure none of the blood could travel down into his lungs.

“Sir, I think he’s following us,” the driver stated after some more sharp turns. Each one getting the agent across from Clint able to hit in somewhere much harder than they had before. After a bit, the others began chuckling.

“Ditch it,” Ross repeated, his voice sharper than before. Clint looked up just slightly so that he could see out the window in the back. A quick glance of the SUV following them and Clint paled. While the windows were blacked out, Clint could still see the outline of the person’s uniform. AIM had found them.

“Ross, that’s AIM,” Clint called, hoping that the man would actually listen to him.

“Just shut up,” Ross snapped back without even turning to look at the archer. Clint grimaced.

“Trust me! AIM found us,” Clint pressed. Ross spun around to glare at the archer.

“Shu-”

An undetermined amount of time later, Clint blearily became aware of the world around him. The van had crashed and somehow had split open. Many of the agents that had been in the back with him hadn’t buckled themselves so they were scattered about the ground outside. Clint hung loosely from his restraints, staring at the ground and ripped open ceiling. For a van that was supposed to carry some pretty heavy packing people, it seemed to crash open easier than a typical van. A quick glance to the front and Clint could see the driver was certainly dead and Ross was slowly coming too against the door. A gun shot echoed from outside that had Clint still. AIM was coming.

“Ross,” Clint softly cried out. There was a groan from the man. “Ross, wake up!”

“Wha?” Ross softly mumbled, his eyes opening and blankly looking around. Clint cussed and looked to the three agents left in the van with him. One seemed to be coming around as well but the others were either still unconscious or dead. There was another gun shot that had the agent waking up quickly, staring up at an angle to see Clint.

“AIM,” Clint grumbled. The agent hissed and tried to shift in his seat, intent on moving. Two gunshots followed in quick succession. Clint shifted to look up and track whatever was going on. A yellow suited person stepped into view and gave a head shot to the two furthest JSC agents. Then turned to the closer one and shot that one. The agent who had woken, struggled harshly on his seat belt but he was stuck. A moment later there was another gun shot and the man stilled. Clint groaned as two more shots came into the van. Ross finally perked up at that and twisted to look back at Clint as the yellow suit moved up front. Clint winced when the driver was shot and the gun turned to Ross.

“Want me to bring him as well?” the AIM agent asked to seemingly no one. After a moment, the agent nodded and put the gun away. Slowly he came to the windshield and worked on getting Ross free from his restraints. Ross hardly struggled, his body having gone lax and his eyes glazed over once again. Clint snarled when suddenly another yellow suit appeared at the open ceiling of the van. The agent laughed.

“Look at that, all strung up like a Christmas present,” the second agent chuckled.

“I celebrate Hanukkah, douche,” the other agent snipped as the suit dragged Ross off to where ever they had parked their get away car.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah...” Clint heard the agent before his grumble. The suit leaned forward, glancing over the ways that Clint had gotten locked in. “Fucking bastard.”

“Hurry up, we don’t got a lotta time,” the first agent snapped out. Clint tensed as the second agent reached forward and fiddled with something. A moment later, the archer dropped to the floor, unable to defend himself as apparently he had only been hooked to the wall with one thing. Wow, insulting much? The agent chuckled and grabbed one of the restraints before dragging Clint out of the van and headed over to the SUV that Clint had noted was following them before.

Ross was blearily laying in the back seat, trying to figure out what was going on and with a viscous tug and help from the other agent, Clint was roughly tossed on top of the man. Both of them grunted before Clint twisted off and landed on the floor between the back seats and the front seats. He groaned at the feeling but could do nothing else about it. “Should we knock ‘em out?”

“What’s the point? They ain’t escaping anytime soon,” the first agent laughed as the suit started the SUV. Ross gave out a weak little moan before closing his eyes and drifting off. Clint groaned, laying his head down onto the floor. Everything hurt too much. From the beating from the agents and now the car accident, Clint was done. He slowly slipped unconscious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter down the dust. Only nine chapters left!
> 
> Darius has been doing good this week. Giving me issues with bathroom problems still but otherwise only upsetting me when I'm tired or in pain. Which, I have been in pain. But, again. Good. Baby Jason is just as good as well. Currently watching his father put together a bouncer cause he needs one. Hope he likes it.
> 
> Might post another chapter later this week... Don't fully expect it as I might forget. So, at least until next time. Have a good week!


	17. AIM, Once Again

CHAPTER 17 - AIM, Once Again

Bucky seemed to stalk down the hallways of the communal floor and the path down to Clint’s floor and his own. Almost as if he was trying to scent for the archer but couldn’t seem to find his ‘hidden’ mate. Course, Bucky knew that Clint was gone, it was just he couldn’t settle down. Bruce, Rhodey and Tony didn’t even attempt to calm the soldier down. They were just as antsy and all three of them debated calling at least Steve back to the tower. But it wasn’t safe for them. Tony couldn’t block Ross out for a second time so soon. FRIDAY could easily mess with the video of the rooms to have it seem as if Bucky wasn’t there. And since Tony deemed it so, there was no audio recording in those rooms as well.

“Ya gotta calm down man,” Rhodey grumbled after Bucky had passed by him for the twentieth time. Bucky just growled at him, flipping him off with the metal arm that Tony had last given him, and then continued stalking around, finally having given up on going to his and Clint’s floor. Cho and Goldstien had long since hidden themselves in the lab, going over the blood work they had gotten from the duo long before. There weren’t many other tests they could do, but they certainly didn’t want to be upstairs with an upset Alpha wolf. Bruce had joined Rhodey on the couch in the living room in an attempt to watch the news for any updates on anything. Tony had vanished into the kitchen a while before hand with a piss poor joke of getting popcorn.

“I doubt he’ll be able too until we can get Clint back,” Bruce muttered, his eyes briefly tracking Bucky before focusing on the TV once again. Rhodey sighed deeply but didn’t argue. Bucky did three more passes before Tony came back into the room a bottle of vodka and two shot glasses in his hands. Rhodey shook his head at the sight but didn’t comment on it. He was getting a bit sick of trying to stop Tony from doing stupid things. The motion had Bruce turning to see what Tony had. “What are you doing?”

“Gonna get drunk with the wolf,” Tony happily retorted. Bucky slowed and looked at the genius and the bottle in his hands. For a moment Bucky almost called Tony a friggin idiot but then calmer minds prevailed.

“You know the serum doesn’t allow me to get drunk, right?” Bucky wondered, his metal fist shifting into a tight fist. Tony happily snorted before placing the items down onto the coffee table and turning to head back into the kitchen. He came out a moment later with Thor’s leftover full bottle of Asgardian mead, something that everyone had learned long ago left Steve at least slightly buzzed for an hour or so. Bucky huffed out a laugh. Steve had told the soldier about it numerous times. Jokingly, he claimed that was the one thing he truly missed from the Tower and the Complex. “That’ll do it.”

“You want. To intentionally. Get the upset, Alpha wolf with a missing mate, drunk?” Rhodey questioned finally. He looked around at the trio to see if they suddenly realized what was going to likely happen. Bucky and Tony stilled for a moment, both trading looks. Bruce let out a choked laugh but he couldn’t help but mentally agree.

“Yeeesss,” Tony slowly replied with caution. Rhodey jumped to his feet, shaking his head as he did so.

“Fuck this, I’m out,” the man declared with a dismissive wave. Bruce turned to look at Rhodey as if the man was feeding him to the ‘wolves.’ But before the army man could actually leave the room, the TV ‘randomly’ switched stations and became louder for a moment. Everyone turned to look at it surprised. FRIDAY didn’t even need to state anything. The image would do it clearly. On screen was a darkened van that had tipped onto it’s side and ripped open like a tin can. Bodies surrounded it.

_“In a bizarre and dangerous circumstance, a prison transport van, has been found just outside city limits after getting into a two car crash. It was reported that the van housed ten Joint Security Counsel agents, all deceased, one missing prisoner, and, also missing, Deputy Task Force Commander, Everett Ross. While sources don’t know what happened to the missing members of the transport, police have stated that all ten agents either died in the crash or died when shot through the head. The driver of the other vehicle has not yet been found but evidence shows he or she may have gotten away. Could the prisoner have had friends that were ready to save him and they captured Deputy Commander Ross, or something else? We will keep you all updated as more information become forth coming,”_ the news reporter called out. Bucky turned pale. Tony stiffened, looking to the soldier in stunned surprise. Rhodey quickly spun around, grabbing his phone to check for messages of any type. Bruce shifted, desperate for some other type of news. This couldn’t be true! What could have actually happened?

“AIM,” Bucky muttered before anyone else could speak. Bruce and Tony focused on the soldier.

“Doesn’t have to be AIM, anyone could have done it,” Tony suggested. Bucky shook his head. He knew without a doubt that it had to have been AIM. They had done the same thing to Clint and him before! It was the exact attack.

“They must have thought I was on the transport!” Bucky continued, getting increasingly desperate. Bruce frowned, trying to figure out how best to calm Bucky down, before remembering what the solider had long ago stated to Steve. And Steve had mentioned to Cho, Tony and himself in the lab afterwards.

“The Aura! We can use that to find Clint!” Bruce called. Everyone turned to look at the doctor in confusion. Bruce smiled, ignoring that no one else seemed to know what he was talking about. “Bucky, you mentioned before that AIM said there was an Aura about those changed. Tony and I never really looked into that as it didn’t seem to matter all that much and we certainly didn’t want the JSC to track you here. But, by scanning you now and learning your Aura, we should be able to find Clint!”

“But-” Bucky started. Bruce shook his head, already knowing what Bucky was going to say.

“We can’t again risk sending you out there to get him. It was bad enough the first time,” Bruce argued before Bucky could finish speaking. Bucky huffed but nodded his head in agreement. If AIM could not only find Clint but attack a government vehicle, then likely they’d go for Bucky long before he found them. And adding the aspect of Ross being involved. It was far too dangerous for Bucky to go. “Now, we should go back down to the lab and start looking at this whole thing. If we can figure it out now, we’d be able to save Clint faster.”

-LINE BREAK-

Clint woke up hard and fast but was thankfully able to stay completely still and without any type of outside reaction, something Coulson and Natasha had beaten into his head numerous times. He just pretty much became aware of things going on around him. Another thing they beat into him was trying to figure out how many people were in the room with him. Throwing out what little senses he had, Clint tried to estimate how many people happened to be around. There seemed to be least six or seven men in the room with him.

Okay, now that that was figured out, his next step was to find out how he was ‘trapped.’ He was tied... No strapped to a table. A cool metal table that had seemingly yet to warm up to his body laying on it. Guess he hadn’t been here long. Four of the men were off to Clint’s left the side, chatting about something. Straining his hearing Clint focused on what was being said. It was something that sounded a bit like Bruce and Tony having a science orgasm. So, they must be the actual docs of the room. That meant the remaining two or three men had to be security/guards... Interesting. He had a chance if he could slip-

“Who are you people?” a voice called out from beside Clint. It was familiar in a bad sort of way. With a small wince, Clint realized it was Ross. That made it that Clint had to open his eyes. He glanced over to see the man laying on a table like him. Ross was also strapped down, but not as much as Clint was. Focusing on looking the Deputy Commander over, Clint noted he still had some of his minor injuries from the crash. None of them were bleeding anymore and he didn’t look too hurt from the crash. Clint could only guess that it was a good thing. “Tell me! I am Deputy Task Force Commander Everett Ross! You can’t keep me here!”

No one responded to his cry. Not that Clint expected anyone too. If he remembered correctly, it was AIM that had taken them out of the crashed transport van. AIM wouldn’t care who they took. With a sigh, he took the a moment to check around the room. His estimation was sadly off by one guard. Damn, Natasha was gonna kick his ass for slacking. Eight men from AIM plus Ross made nine men and he first estimated at least seven men. Yup, Nat was gonna kill him.

“Ah, you’re awake!” another familiar voice echoed into the room. Clint glanced over and groaned. It was the same damn douche from before. The guy that Bucky had secretly told Clint he called Slag. And yeah, Clint was totally gonna use that name as well. He looked like a Slag.

“Who the fuck are you!?” Ross demanded to know. Slag ignored him and instead focused on Clint.

“So, it worked I see,” Slag commented, moving closer to Clint and placing a hand on the archer’s gut. Clint’s breathing hitched. Oh shit. This wasn’t good.

“Don’t touch me,” Clint snarled, jerking at his restraints, using that moment to test how badly he was strapped down. Slag laughed and patted Clint’s gut a bit harder. Clint growled. For a brief moment he wondered if he should shift to his wolf but then figured it was best not to let them know that Bucky, and now he, could change people over with a bite.

“You are so very snappy, aren’t you. Mad that we didn’t snatch Barnes with you?” Slag wondered. Clint stilled. Oh shit. His eyes flicked to Ross to see the man had his face scrunched up in confusion and anger.

“What?” Ross cried. Slag finally looked up at the man then back at Clint and settled on Ross with an ‘evil’ chuckle. Clint just watched Ross.

“Oh, no one told you? That wolf that was taken, James Buchanan Barnes,” Slag informed. Ross’s eyes flicked between Slag and Clint in surprise before settling on Clint with a glare. The archer huffed, turning away anda mentally refused to look over at the man any longer. “Yes, we’ve been experimenting with giving people animalistic traits. Mr. Barnes accidentally got ‘infected’ with wolf genetics.”

“You people are insane,” Ross declared, glaring at Slag. The scientist laughed. For a moment Clint wondered if this was how Natasha felt every time they got kidnapped together. It was surprisingly annoying to have someone talking and ‘insulting’ their kidnappers. At least this wasn’t full torture like most times. Just... Just science stuff.

“We are just trying to make better people,” Slag retorted, his voice sounding like an evil innocence. Clint rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, cause we don’t already have enough of those types,” Ross snapped, misunderstanding what the scientist was getting at. Slag chuckled.

“Well, I hope you realize that, as an untainted body, you are going to be our newest subject,” Slag informed. Clint stilled before turning to look at the Deputy Commander. Ross’s face had gone pale. If Clint wasn’t a better man, he’d have laughed at the look but, he was a good man so he just gave the man a sympathetic look. Slag chuckled again before turning around and dismissing the other scientists with him. The guards also shifted out of the room. Mistake number one. Clint used the moment to look back at the ceiling, once again testing his bonds.

“Can... Can you get us out?” Ross stuttered, looking over to Clint. The archer just turned to look at the man with a confused look. Yeah he was working on that but... This man was going to fucking throw him in jail as soon as the archer got him free. Why the fuck would he want to help Ross?

“Are you serious?” Clint demanded, trying to keep his voice from sounding too angered. Ross raised an eyebrow at him, confused. Clint huffed a laugh. “Are you fucking serious right now?”

“Yes. Wasn’t that like your job?” Ross encouraged, nodding toward the bonds that held the archer down. Clint hysterically laughed at the man. The man was completely serious. Clint couldn’t help but turn back to the ceiling in stunned amusement.

“You fucking threw... No you are fucking throwing me in the Raft for just that fucking reason!” Clint shouted, turning back to Ross at the end of his tirade. Ross winced, mentally realizing how fucked he was. Clint sneered at him. “Maybe the government will give enough shit about you to maybe send Iron Man or War Machine after you. But... I doubt that.”

“You... You can get us out though!” Ross cried, desperation leaking into his voice. Clint laughed at the man again, twisting his head away from Ross in disbelief. “Barton, come on.”

“Shut up,” Clint hissed, maybe AIM still hadn’t figured out who he was. But everyone in the world did publicly know that Clint Barton was Hawkeye. Ross frowned, not getting what the archer was talking about.

“Barton,” Ross repeated, his voice begging.

“Shut up,” Clint growled. He really wished he was free so he could punch Ross in the fucking face right now.

“Barton, please,” Ross tried again. Clint turned to face him, his eyes flashing golden in rage.

“Shut the FUCK up!” the archer yelled, his eyes twitching to a distance red light. Oh great. Lets just make Clint’s day even worse. AIM had to know who he was at this point. They had to realize that they had originally lost not just Barnes but now Hawkeye. And they got Hawkeye back. Ross winced and watched as Clint took a deep breath and hit his head against the table. “Jesus Christ. You don’t fucking get it do you?”

“Get what?” Ross wondered. Clint huffed out a laugh. This whole situation was fucked up.

“The fucking Accords,” Clint replied. Ross made a confused face toward the archer. Clint sighed. Might as well get the whole damn thing over with. “If the Accords didn’t exist, I would be a hundred percent certain that my team would come find me. That more than likely all of this shit would have been shut down in one tactical hit. But, no. The Accords split the Avengers all up. So, Cap, Widow, Falcon, Scarlet, and Soldier all went in with no clue how big the operation was. Or even what was going on! And you want to know why they had to handle it? Cause the government didn’t give two shits about some missing people in a small town in Maine.”

“We... We didn’t know,” Ross mumbled as if it was a good excuse. Clint snorted, looking back to see Ross had turned to look in the opposite direction from the archer. Yeah, Ross was beginning to see how fucked they were. The others couldn’t come find him. If they did, they either released they knew about what happened or that they would be going against the very thing they signed up for. Especially if the government did indeed decide rescuing Ross wasn’t worth the man power.

“If the other Avengers could find out about it, the government had to have heard at least something about it. But decided it was worthless to send the ‘powerhouse’ hitters even though local law enforcement couldn’t find out anything,” Clint hissed. Ross winced and Clint could tell he was giving the wall a chagrined look but didn’t reply. Clint huffed again, turning to look at the ceiling himself. “If the Avengers had been together, we likely could have found out about what AIM was doing long before they got to the serum that was given to all those people and saved numerous lives. But, you want to know why AIM was able to get so far? Cause the Avengers were fighting each other in Germany and getting sent to the Raft.”

“You nearly destroyed that whole airport!” Ross accused, angrily turning back to look at the archer. Clint rolled his eyes and sighed. Slowly he looked back to the Deputy Commander.

“I’m not saying we didn’t. I know we did. But do you want to know why we fought there? Why Scott, Sam, Wanda, Barnes, Steve and I all fought against our friends?” Clint growled, sick and tired of no one actually asking what was going on. Not that informing the government would have made a difference. Zemo had already arrived at the Hydra compound before Steve and Bucky had gotten there. “Because Barnes remembered Hydra had created five more super soldiers who had horrible roid rage and the psychiatrist you brought in to examine Barnes... He had a notebook with words that turned Barnes into a mindless being who followed whatever order given to him. Including causing a ruckus at JSC headquarters.”

“Oh,” Ross whispered, his eyes casting downward toward the door that the AIM agents had left in. Clint huffed, yet again facing the ceiling.

“Yeah, oh. Bet the entire Avengers could have dealt with that long before Germany happened. Hell, it might not have happened if you people thought to listen!” Clint snarled. This whole thing was fucked. From start to finish.

“But what about Sokovia?” Ross finally wondered. “What about Ultron, or whatever that thing was?”

“Sokovia already had Hydra over there. Yes, Ultron was a mistake but, it was made in an effort of peace so that the Avengers could retire. But, what about Iraq? Iran? Afghanistan?” Clint started with a hum of curiosity. His eyes flicked over to see Ross had faced him again. Ross frowned, wondering what that had to do with Sokovia. “Do you know how many innocents have been killed there?”

“Manhattan?”

“The World Security Council tried to send a nuke into New York. If Tony hadn’t been there, New York City would be a toxic waist land.”

“But-”

“Don’t you dare say it wouldn’t have happened,” Clint snapped with a dark glare now aimed at the man. Ross winced at the sight. Yeah, Hawkeye may seem the weakest on the team of Avengers, but people forgot. He used to be a highly trained spy and assassin that the underworld feared. “There was no way anyone could have known about Loki coming here, no matter if S.H.I.E.L.D had been working with it. Loki would have still come to Earth. Would have then succeeded in taking over. And New York would be dead. Millions more would be dead.”

“Lagos?”

“Wanda did her best. But, do you know how many more people would have been killed on the ground from that same explosion? She tried to send it up and out of the way of anyone. But trying to hold back the force of an explosion and moving it high into the sky is highly difficult. She did what she could and every loss of life bothers all of us,” Clint pointed out. Ross sighed, finally understanding what Clint was saying. The Avengers knew that something had to change. But once again being under someone’s thumb easily meant that groups like Hydra could once again use them to change the world to their view. “I agree that things needed to change. But the Accords are not the solution to this issue.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!


	18. We're Working Together

CHAPTER 18 - We’re Working Together

“So, we had captured two Avengers before,” called the voice of Slag. Considering the door hadn’t opened, Clint could only figure that there were speakers somewhere in the room. Ross jerked in surprise and started looking around the room, trying to see who was speaking. Clint huffed. Wow, Ross had never been captured before. For a guy who was a commander of a military force, Ross apparently didn’t know much about fighting.

“Barnes technically wasn’t an Avenger. He joined Cap after the Accords were already in place,” the archer softly pointed out, trying to change the subject a bit. There was a loud laugh that had both Clint and Ross wincing. Damn that was loud. Louder than before. Almost like the bastard turned it up before laughing. And honestly, Clint wouldn’t be surprised if that was what he had done.

“Technicalities aside, Barnes was infected with wolf genetics and you, dear archer. You were physically changed,” Slag chuckled as if it hadn’t been obvious before. Ross had known about Bucky getting changed but hadn’t known what happened to the archer. Clint growled, refusing to look at Ross. Fuck this guy. Ross looked to Clint curiously. “How does it feel? Have you had sex with it yet?”

“Don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about,” Clint snarled, his eyes flicking around the room. After a moment he found the speaker but turned to focus back on the camera, giving it a death glare. Best to just focus on this head on rather then hiding. Clint almost wished that Ross wouldn’t hear about this but... AIM apparently enjoyed making others suffer. Slag again chuckled at the sight.

“Barton?” Ross wondered. There was no way that Clint was going to verbally admit anything.

“You know what I’m talking about. I’m certain that Stark would have noticed our success,” Slag pointed out, ignoring Ross’s words. Ross’s face turned even more confused. Clint’s eyes quickly glanced at Ross before once again focusing on the camera. This was going exactly how he expected this to go. “I know that your friend would even try and reverse what had been done. Too bad it will never work.”

“And what makes you think that?” Clint huffed, finally giving in and not playing the ignorant man. Might as well. Slag was going to let Ross in either way. Maybe Clint could learn something about what happened before Slag caught on. Ross frowned.

“What is he talking about?” the Deputy Commander whispered. Slag let out a barking laugh that echoed through the room a few times. Ross wined but this time Clint was prepared for the sound. He just continued glaring at the camera. Ignore it, just ignore it. That’s all he had to do.

“Oh, Stark didn’t tell him?” Slag questioned in such a way that Clint knew he was focused on him. Clint said nothing as Ross glanced around. The archer almost could see Ross trying to find a TV screen or something that stated what Slag was talking about.

“Didn’t tell me what?” the man wondered. Clint tensed. This was it.

“We made Hawkeye part woman,” the scientist admitted. Ross turned and gave Clint a horrified look. Clint didn’t even twitch. “We’ll need to perform some scans but our original assessment shows that not only have we created the female reproduction organs, but that he can get pregnant. In fact, he may actually be pregnant right now.”

Clint paled. Goldstien was right. Even with the miscarriage having been so close, he could indeed get pregnant right after. That fucking sucked. But... Would AIM be able to tell what happened with the child? Would it be a wolf like it’s parents? Or human? A quick glance to the side allowed Clint to note that Ross was just as pale as Clint felt. At the sight, Clint only closed his eyes and turned to look at the ceiling. Now he seriously wished that his life wasn’t as fucked up as it was. Why did he ever agree to stay with the Avengers after Loki?

“I assumed this was going to be a happy moment, Hawkeye. You’re about to become... Well, a mother,” Slag snorted over the speakers. Clint said nothing, just stared at the ceiling. This couldn’t be happening. This couldn’t be his life. Maybe... Maybe he had spent all this time sleeping and this was a nightmare... Or he forgot that he had entered some parallel dimension or something and his mind had replaced the mind of the Clint in that/this dimension. All he had to do was focus, wake up, anything but just lay here wondering what was going on inside his gut.

“Barton?” Ross softly asked when a few minutes went by without Slag speaking again or someone coming into the room. Clint closed his eyes, beginning to feel tears forming. He was stuck. Stuck with AIM looking him over. And AIM knowing he was with child. For a moment he debated once again to change forms and run away but... Where would he go? Who knew if they were still in the States. AIM could have flown them to England or something. He was trapped with no hope of rescue. “Barton, you-”

“No... No, I’m not okay,” Clint whispered, turning his head away from Ross and trying to look around. Ross was right, he did need to escape, even if he got caught again. And, like Ross wanted, he’d have to take the man with him. Clint tugged gently at his restraints. They were tight but not tight enough to cause too big an issue. He had both ankles tied. His shins strapped down. His thighs, his hips, his chest, wrists and arms. The only thing truly free from being held down was his head. Okay, he could work with this.

“Barton,” Ross called again. Clint ignored him as he pulled at the restraint on his left arm. Best do the side away from the camera. With the added strength he hadn’t noticed that he got from the wolf, Clint easily tore through the restraint. Smiling lightly, Clint continued down the rest of his arm, being careful to not lift it above his chest once freed. With the one arm free, Clint glanced to the camera and then to Ross. He’d have maybe a minute to finish undoing himself, free Ross and then get out of the room. And that’s if there was no guard standing at the doorway. “Barton.”

“Shut up. Let me think,” Clint growled. He was gonna have to change... But he couldn’t. If he did how was Ross going to get out. Wait, if he changed to get out of the restraints, shifted back and freed Ross... Then he’d have a shot. But... AIM might fight harder to keep him. “Fuck.”

“Barton, what?” Ross mumbled. Clint shook his head, glancing once again at his restraints then to the camera and then to Ross. “What’s going through your head?”

“I’m trying to figure out how to get us out of here,” Clint snarled.

“You won’t be able to, Hawkeye,” Slag’s voice stated as the door opened and he came into the room with a few other people. Clint stiffened when Slag noticed his left arm was free. This was it. Do or die. He had only seconds to make a decision “Interesting.”

Clint growled. He only had one shot at this, and it was gonna suck ass. Without really thinking about it, Clint shifted, snapping all the restraints off the table in an instant as his body forced them all to break open or allow Clint’s legs to slid through. Rolling off the table, Clint lunged for the scientist. He caught him round the throat. A quick tug and Clint knew that Slag was dead. Good, no more wolves wandering around. He spun on the others that came into the room. He’d have to be careful now. They’d be watching him and a simple bite without a kill was going to turn them just like he and Bucky had been turned.

One of the scientists in the room gave out a horrible scream and moved to run out of the room. Clint barely spared the person a glance as the remaining men began circling him, guns drawn. He didn’t need to kill everyone. Just those who wanted to stay and fight. Yeah, it’d suck that AIM now knew he was wolf as well, but they already wanted him for being a woman and now pregnant. Not really any other way then getting more screwed.

“BARTON!” Ross screamed. Clint couldn’t tell if it was in fear or shock but either way, his eyes twitched that way. The guard nearest the Deputy Commander jumped, glancing down at the man. Clint launched himself over Ross’s table to catch this guy in the shoulder. The same place Bucky had caught him. But, unlike Bucky, Clint began shaking his head, ripping into the man’s neck and breaking the jugular and possibly carotid artery. The man dropped, screaming for a moment before going silent. Clint spun, still on the table over Ross, glaring at the other guards. He was half surprised that none of them tried to shoot him yet. But then again, this was AIM and not only was Clint half female and possibly pregnant, he was now a wolf as well. He was a huge investment. “Holy fuck!”

Clint ignored the man, growling at the guards left in the room. One guard started visibly shaking while the other looked down at the fallen comrade. Once the man turned away from Clint, he jumped, intent on getting this man too but a gunshot went off and Clint felt pain shooting through his hind leg. He couldn’t stop his high pitch yelp of pain as he landed heavily on the distracted guard without actually attacking. Another shot came up the side of his ribs and Clint scrambled to get away, ignoring the pain as much as possible but it was too much. He whined and forced himself to change back. One bullet wound skimmed straight across his chest, the other thankfully had missed his hip and instead lodged itself in the meat of his thigh. Suddenly a third shot rang out, but Clint didn’t feel any pain. Instead the guard in front of him dropped.

“You fucking idiot,” a voice growled. Clint twitched, looking over to see someone enter the room. It was another scientist, this time a woman. For a moment, Clint wondered if he was supposed to know her, but he couldn’t put a name to her face. Not that he tended to pay attention to who worked for what evil corporation until they started attacking him. It normally wasn’t all that prevalent unless he had to watch them or kill them. The woman looked to the other guard left in the room. He was still shaking.

“Ma’am,” the man stated before there was another gun shot. The man fell. Clint slightly moved, intent on getting up but stopped when the gun in the woman’s hand was pointed at him. She looked him over before sighing. Clint grunted, moving a bit more when suddenly he felt a prick in his neck. Spinning quickly, the archer noted another person had gone around the other side of his table. How had he missed that? It didn’t take long before he was out.

\----------

Bucky growled, pacing the lab as if his presence there would make any sort of difference in the speed of what Bruce and Tony were analyzing. FRIDAY had already taken all the scans she could but it didn’t seem to make a difference. Bruce and Tony had no idea what AIM had been talking about when they said that Bucky let out some kind of aura. There was nothing different about Bucky from Tony or Bruce, or Cho... Could AIM have been talking out of their ass? But why? Why would they do that after already having caught the soldier? They had to have known that Bucky wouldn’t have let that stop him from trying to get free. So what did it matter?

“Can I finally go look?” Bucky wondered. Bruce sighed. For the past hour or so, Bucky had been asking that question every five minutes or so. Neither man answered him though.

“We can test-” Tony started.

“Tried,” Bruce mentioned. Tony huffed, typing something else.

“What about-”

“Sir, it did not pan out,” FRIDAY interrupted. Tony groaned and dropped his head onto his table. Bucky stopped and looked to the genius. Bruce took off his glasses and rubbed his nose, unsure what else he could do. There was absolutely no other test he could try.

“I’ve looked over every note that they took on these people. There is no mention of an aura in any of the notes,” Bruce complained.

“Maybe they lied. Maybe they just happened to be tracking Clint or me or something,” Bucky suggested. Tony shook his head, not moving it off the table as he did so.

“We’ve analyzed everything. There is no trace on either of you. I’m... I’m betting they knew that Clint was gonna be transported here, to the tower. And once Ross came and took him out of the tower, they attacked,” Tony grumbled. Bruce paused.

“Would explain why they didn’t realize Bucky was coming during that auction for Clint. They don’t have a way to trace it. They could have heard or seen Clint, or you, while you guys traveled and just followed you,” Bruce called, his voice slightly shocked. He looked up to Bucky.

“But they knew about-” Bucky started.

“We can see the change in your blood. If they checked to see if you were good enough for any of their other experiments, or had been looking for a clue on your super soldier serum, they’d see it. They’d investigate it,” Bruce stated. Bucky frowned. He could see Bruce’s point. “But that means, if there is no aura, yes. You can go out and save him.”

“Bruce,” Tony called, stopping them. “The Joint Security Council.”

“Fuck them!” Bucky shouted with a shake of his head. Tony winced, looking up at the soldier. “Fuck them. I’m gonna find Clint.”

“And what about Ross? Huh? He was taken too! Gonna save him as well?” Tony wondered, getting to his feet. Bucky snarled. “Go ahead. Ross is just waiting for a slip up like this! Let me call Rhodey. See what they plan on doing about getting Ross back.”

“We can’t let them get Clint again!” Bucky roared. Tony shook his head.

“You aren’t thinking clearly! If the JSC is planning on saving Ross, then Clint can use them as a distraction to escape!” Tony loudly pointed out.

“Tony, I doubt Clint would try and escape them,” Bruce softly mentioned. That let the wind out of Tony’s sail. “Clint went easily with them what, three times now? In Germany, after the escape of the Raft, and just earlier. Can we really expect him to run again?”

“We can only hope,” Tony whispered. Bucky shook his head.

“I can’t risk that,” he growled, moving to get out of the lab.

“FRIDAY,” Tony snapped. The doors to the lab snapped closed before Bucky could get near them. Bruce stiffened in surprise as he watched Bucky still. Tony shifted uncomfortably but didn’t call off the order. Even when Bucky slowly turned around, his face promising danger. Tony just watched, waiting for Bucky to say something.

“Open the doors,” Bucky growled as softly as possible. Bruce felt a chill run up his back. Tony defiantly shook his head. “Tony.”

“No, you need to think,” Tony mentioned. Bucky’s voice turned darker as he growled. Tony moved closer to the soldier, shaking slightly in fear but trying to act brave. “If you go and rescue Clint and Ross, Ross will capture you along with Clint. And the JSC will not only have access to a super soldier serum, but they’d also have two examples of AIM’s successful formula.”

“Are you gonna go?” Bucky hissed. Tony sighed.

“We are still in that catch 22. We need to find out what the JSC is doing. If they plan on saving Ross, I can go help and make sure Clint is able to sneak away. But we need to do this carefully,” Tony replied. Bucky’s eyes narrowed. “Hey, I wanna help him too. He’s my friend as well!”

“HE’S MY MATE!” Bucky roared. Tony moved closer.

“DON’T FUCKING DO THIS AGAIN! WE’RE ON THE SAME FUCKING TEAM!” Tony screamed back. Bucky backed down, confused. Seeing that, Tony sighed. “Clint is my friend, one of my best friends, that I failed. Now, I have a chance to help him out, but to do it right, I need to make sure I don’t get in trouble doing it. Keeping myself out of trouble with the JSC keeps him safe. If you get involved, I won’t be able to get you both out without getting in trouble. So, please. Trust me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How'd you all like the earlier chapter!? That was my present to all of you.
> 
> My house is still a mess from Christmas. Had gotten all the wrapping paper and most of the boxes of things cleaned up but there is just so much stuff! Maybe I went a bit overboard with shopping. Whoops. Well, Darius certainly enjoyed it. Still got some of his gifts out in the car cause I'm a bit too lazy to get it all right now. Sides, I need to clean up the mess that was left over from Christmas. Gotta find some places for a lot of the toys that he doesn't seem to be playing with like some stuffed animals. And also gotta clean up the rest in general. So much work! @_@ Baby Jason got a bunch of gifts as well. Certainly not as much as Darius had gotten but a good amount. He's currently laying in a small ball pit thing that has different growing stages. I think most of what he had gotten was clothing. I think one of the best gifts that Darius ended up getting was the gift my father made for him. It's a wooden Jeep Wrangler. He liked playing with it at my brother's house and I enjoyed looking at it. The best gift my hubby seemed to enjoy was a Bray Wyatt Severed Head Lantern. Mike really seemed to enjoy both a San Diego Comic Con exclusive box of Ghostbuster figures and a book from Transformers. Janice really liked the coat from WWE with 'I Am The Man' written on it. As for me... Jesus, I don't know what the best gift was... I got two different Etsy made Hawkeye stuffed animals. Two different Hawkeye figures, two Disney books, tickets for events happening during my trip to Disney in February and a pillow/blanket Mickey Mouse gift where the pillow has like a felt and nice and soft feeling too it.
> 
> See you all next Friday!


	19. Seriously?

CHAPTER 19 - Seriously?

“They aren’t planing on looking for Ross. They’re already looking for his replacement,” Rhodey reported through the speakers of the lab even as his holographic image shook his head in disgust. Tony cussed, running a hand through his hair. “We were all told to simply stand down.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” Bruce muttered, his eyes flicking to look at Bucky. Rhodey let out a hum of agreement. Bucky growled, looking to Tony, wondering what was the next step. “Would it matter to them if you tried to go after Ross?”

“It’s been decided that anyone seeking to find Ross without their permission will be labeled traitors and thrown in jail for not following the Accords,” Rhodey informed. Bucky hissed.

“I won’t be looking for Ross. I’d be looking for Clint,” Bucky pointed out. Rhodey let out a huff.

“It’s the same thing. And besides, T’Challa is still doing you a huge favor by giving you diplomatic immunity in Wakanda. If anyone finds out you’ve been trapezing around the globe with Captain America, you’ll be killed on sight,” Rhodey warned. Bucky paused at that.

“People have seen me,” he stated.

“Then be glad no one reported it,” Rhodey said back. Bucky groaned, dropping into a seat near Bruce. The doctor moved over as if to comfort the man but stopped before laying a hand on him. “It’s well known that Steve is highly likely to not try and search Ross out. But, no one truly thinks that Steve’d do it. Everyone knows that it’s Ross who would throw all of them in jail without a second of hesitation.”

“But, the transport prisoner,” Bruce tried. Rhodey shook his head.

“There was no mention that it was Clint. Anyone could have been taken. In New York alone there are nearly five other heroes, maybe more, and that wasn’t including the Avengers. Anyone of them could have been taken instead,” Rhodey countered. Bucky looked to Tony.

“I need to go save him,” the soldier insisted. Tony winced.

“We need to think this through, plan it out so no one gets in trouble,” Tony stressed. Bucky snarled but it wasn’t anything like the angered snarl from before. This one sounded more like a defeat.

“Sir, I am receiving another call. Shall I patch it through?” FRIDAY called, breaking the tension in the room. Tony frowned.

“Do you know who?”

“I am unable to disclose the call,” FRIDAY replied. That made most of the group frown. Bucky hid behind a table, stripping his pants, and then shifted to his wolf form, forgetting about the metal limb, before jogging toward the ‘cell.’ Once inside, FRIDAY closed the door but everyone knew it wasn’t locked. Tony then nodded his acceptance. It took a moment then there was a click and some sound of disturbance in the background.

“Hello, mysterious str-” Tony began.

“Who was on that transport van?” Steve’s voice interrupted. A moment later there was a holographic depiction of him standing there. Behind him was the vague outline of someone else. Seeing who it was, Bucky shifted back, ignoring his naked form even as Bruce rushed to bring the man his pants.

“Clint,” Bucky replied before anyone else could speak. “Ross came here and took Clint. And the idiot-”

“Went without a fight,” Natasha angrily finished, moving so that she could clearly be seen in the image. Tony sighed and asked FRIDAY to enlarge the field of view. While it was a Wakandan jet, FRIDAY, once having a connection, could worm her way into the system to help however Tony needed. JARVIS used to have the same ability. Vision, who was still off sulking now that Wanda had left, had lost that ability or, well, never had it. When Bucky and Bruce nodded, Natasha turned her head away and started vehemently cussing about Clint in Russian. Thankfully, Bucky said nothing about some of the terms she used. Nor did he really dispute her. Clint deserved a lot of the terms.

“Do you know where they were taken?” Steve questioned.

“They?” Rhodey wondered, his image turning to look at Steve. One good thing about Tony’s tech, it wasn’t hard to inter grade two calls. Steve turned to look at the army man.

“Yes. Just because Ross has plans to throw us in jail, I will not stand by and let him needlessly suffer. I’m assuming, whoever took Clint also took Ross,” Steve responded.

“AIM,” Bucky growled.

“We don’t know that for certain,” Bruce snapped. Bucky turned to snarl at him. Bruce stood up taller. He wasn’t going to be afraid of Bucky. Hulk... Hulk might be able to fend off the wolf genes... Hopefully. “There are tons of other people that would love to get their hands on not just Clint, but Ross as well. Anyone could have done it.”

“But, we’re pretty sure it’s AIM,” Tony whispered. Bruce spun to glare at him now. Tony just held his hands up in defense. “Look, we can keep fighting about it all we want, but, we know someone took them. If we simply focus on that, maybe we’ll catch a hint.”

“Or let the wolf out of the tower and scent his mate down,” Bucky angrily suggested once again.

“If AIM did know about Clint on that transport van, what makes you think that they wouldn’t still be watching the tower for a white three legged wolf to run out?” Sam wondered, moving a step further up so that his image cleared. Bucky opened his mouth to argue but Sam just shook his head. “This can’t be like Germany all over again. We need to make plans. Need to figure out how we can all stay out of trouble.”

“I-”

“Buck, please,” Steve pressed. Bucky frowned. “We all want to save Clint. We need to be smart about it.”

\----------

“Barton. Barton. Barton,” a voice repeated over and over. Clint couldn’t help but groan. What the fuck happened? “Barton, wake up.”

“Wha?” Clint blearily called, turning to face where the voice was coming from. Ross was laying there, staring at him in fear. Clint groaned again as the memories raced through his mind. Once he remembered, the pain across his chest and in the leg increased. This time his groan was pained and he couldn’t help but turn to look at the ceiling. “You... okay?”

“What? Seriously? You... You turned in a wolf and then got shot and you’re asking about me?” Ross cried, incredulously. Clint focused on the other man again in slight confusion. Did this guy forget that Clint used to be a spy and was supposed to be a hero? Even if he was a retired hero...

“Yeah.”

“Jesus... I’m fine! What about you?” Ross retorted. Clint tried to shrug but hissed when it pulled on the healing injury of his chest. Well, that explained a little bit. But, it hadn’t felt like he was pulling at bandages, or the first layer of a healing scab. He was further along.

“How long have I been out?” Ross frowned. He hadn’t been paying attention to that. Clint let out an annoyed hissed through his nose. He should have known better.

“They drugged you, grabbed you and took off. Maybe two or three hours later, you were brought back,” Ross finally answered but Clint could hear that it was a guess of time. Clint lifted his head and then thunked it back down onto the table. Now he knew how Natasha felt when she got captured with him. Especially when they first started working together. “So... A wolf?”

“I don’t wanna get into it,” Clint grumbled. Ross huffed an annoyed breath.

“We got nothing else to talk about,” the Deputy Commander stated. Clint rolled his eyes. “What happened?”

“I don’t wanna talk about it,” Clint insisted.

“What happened?”

“Ross.”

“Just tell me.”

“NO!” Clint snapped, turning to glare at the man. Ross winced and Clint figured his eyes changed colors cause he could feel that he was close to shifting. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “They’re listening in on us. Watching us. If I tell you anything, they’ll know.”

“Oh.”

“You’ve never gotten kidnapped before, have you? Never gotten trained for anything like this?” Clint wondered, focusing on Ross. The man winced again and Clint gave a very fake chuckle of amusement. “So, you rose into power over all those men and women without knowing what they go through. You ordered ten people to ride in the van with us. The same ten people who apparently had permission to rough me up for no other reason than the fact that I was Hawkeye, a hero turned traitor cause I didn’t sign a stupid piece of paper. The same ten people who were shot while laying on the roadside after someone... I mean AIM, crashed into the van.”

“I don’t-”

“Yeah, I know. You don’t understand. And that’s my point, Ross. You people, you government types don’t know what it’s like. You sit in your pretty little offices, looking over paperwork that sends good men and women into battle. While you get to go home and eat with your families, have trysts with random people, those same men and women are out there likely fighting for their lives. And you all seem to think you can control heroes and do the same thing?”

“The Accords-”

“Are for the benefit of man-kind. I read the damn packet that was sent to me. Doesn’t make it any less than what it was. Indentured servitude,” Clint growled. Then he twisted his head to look around the room. “And look where that led us.”

“Fuck you!” Ross finally snarled. Clint actually laughed now as he shook his head.

“Just shut up. I don’t wanna talk anymore.” And amazingly, Ross did. Neither of them spoke. For over an hour and a half they just laid there on their tables, waiting for something to happen. At that mark, Ross started shifting around. Clint paused in his meditation to look over at the man. He just watched as Ross’s face pinched in concentration. After a few more minutes of the man twitching around, Clint caved. “What’s wrong?”

“I... I have to go to the bathroom,” Ross whispered. Clint paused for a moment. Did... Did he hear that right?

“What?” Clint couldn’t help but ask. Ross turned to glare at the archer.

“I have to go take a fucking piss,” the man retorted. Again, Clint paused. Then he burst into hysterical laughter, turning his head away to look at the ceiling again. In the midst of his laughter, Clint could hear Ross getting mad that he was laughing so hard. After a while, Clint calmed down.

“Oh my god,” Clint chuckled, shaking his head. This was pretty much exactly what happened the first time Clint had been kidnapped. He was too naive to realize that his torturers had any human decency to let him actually use a bathroom. After a few more times of pissing on himself, Clint learned how to hold onto his bladder for a lot longer.

“What? What’s wrong with having normal bodily needs?” Ross hissed. Clint chuckled again, looking at Ross with an unsympathetic look.

“The fact that you don’t seem to realize, you aren’t getting released to go and all I could picture was when you figured it out.” Ross’s face morphed into horror. Clint started laughing again. “Yup, there it is.”

“You’re kidding right? They... They wouldn’t do that!” Ross cried. Clint’s laughter increased again. “Barton!”

“Oh god,” Clint called, trying to calm down so he could speak. “Not every where is like prison. Nearly every time I’ve been captured, I’ve been tossed in a cell with no toilet, hole in the ground, bucket, nothing to go to the bathroom in. I’ve gotten used to holding it in as long as I could but there have been times where I’ve been captured for days. That’s why it tends to smell when someone gets rescued. They don’t have the decency to clean up a prisoner.”

Ross’s mouth dropped open before his gaze fixed onto the camera. “PLEASE! LET ME OUT!”

“Ross,” Clint grumbled as Ross repeated himself again.

“PLEASE!”

“Ross.”

“LET ME OUT!”

“Ross,” Clint snapped a bit louder. Ross continued, undeterred. Clint groaned. Fuck it. Let the idiot get hurt. Ross continued crying out for help for the next five minutes or so before the door opened. That was a shorter time than Clint expected AIM to allow. Ross let out a sob of relief as three agents dressed in the stupid ass yellow suits entered the room.

“Please! I have to go pee,” the man begged. Clint snorted. Ross sounded like a five year old begging to be able to go. The AIM agents ignored the man as they came toward Clint’s table. The archer stiffened. What was going to happen now? A needle was shifted up to be shown to the archer. Clint looked to it and then back to the agent.

“Come quietly and we won’t have to drug you,” one agent stated. Clint glanced to it again before looking to the agent with a dangerous smile.

“You’d trust me to come quietly?” he wondered. The agent that spoke sighed before quickly plunging the needle into Clint’s neck. Clint hissed a bit at the sharp pain but didn’t fight. Seconds later, the drug began to work but it didn’t drop him unconscious. It was more like an extremely high dose of painkillers or something that made the person loose and willing. Clint groaned as the straps began getting undone around him. Ross started crying out again about his need but was still ignored. It took only a minute or two before the AIM agents had Clint placed into a wheelchair that had been collected from the hall. Apparently they hadn’t trusted him to go quietly. Smart of them. As they moved out of the room, Clint noted that four agents had gone in but only three stayed with the archer as they left. What was the last one doing?

Whatever the man was doing didn’t really matter cause he was being led away from the room and Ross. So, Clint had to focus on himself. He wasn’t strapped down. And there weren’t many guards watching over him. He could escape now. But as he twitched his body to move, a cold circle of metal was placed against his neck. Clint stilled. There was a gun to his neck. But... Hadn’t they wanted him undamaged? Gradually, Clint lost his sense of time and certainly of direction as the agents wheeled him around. To be honest, he wouldn’t have been surprised if they simply removed him from the room in order to clean it up and do a bit of rearranging before returning him to it. But, whatever happened, Clint had no idea where he was.

“Good evening, Agent Barton,” the familiar female voice greeted. Clint tried hard to focus on her. The drug that had given him seemed to be working even more than it had been. He could hardly pay attention. “Hmm. I’ll have to make note that you get that reaction.” There was a pause. “Get him on the bed.”

Clint felt hands grabbing for him. Mentally he wanted to struggle, to move his body around to fight them. But the communication from his brain to his limbs were pretty much nil at this point. He was like a prisoner in his own mind again. That thought brought some lucidity back as he began to panic. He was stuck! He couldn’t move! He couldn’t stop himself!

“HOLD HIM DOWN!” the voice roared. Clint continued panicking. Loki had gotten him again. He was enthralled! He was gonna kill people! Innocent people! Then suddenly, it all stopped. Clint could feel that his arms and legs were held down by metal cuffs. Hands still grasped certain parts of his body but they were doing it more as a way to hold him down. Blinking, Clint focused on the room even as whatever drug had been given to him wore off. He was still in AIM custody. Not good, but better than being with Loki. “Make note, the subject does not respond well to DR 418217-181165.”

“That was the most vicious reaction I’ve ever experienced,” another voice, male this time, muttered. Clint looked over. The man was short, fat, balding. If someone held a picture of Arnim Zola to this dude’s face, they’d likely look like twins. Just without the glasses. On the other side was the woman that had killed the guards that had shot him. He still recognized her, but just couldn’t place a name to her face. “Are you sure you gave him the amount I prescribed? Anything higher could damage the baby.”

Clint couldn’t stop his whimper of fear. They almost hurt his unborn child?

“Calm, your baby will be fine,” the woman seemingly cooed. Clint turned and glared at her. She just smiled. “My name is Dr. Bailey. I’m the one doing the major research in all of this.”

“So, it’s your fault I’m able to carry a kid,” Clint spat, pissed off. Bailey laughed.

“I guess that is one way to look at it. But, we have yet to know if it is a kid, or a pup,” she replied. Clint paled. He had wondered the same thing when Slag had first mentioned he was expecting. “Most women can’t tell this early that they are expecting. But, you can see it in dogs, excuse me. Wolves.”

“Fuck you,” Clint hissed, figuring anger was going to be the best way to deal with all this. Bailey laughed.

“Someone beat me to it,” she chuckled. Clint snarled even as she backed away. “Dr. Hering, I presume you are ready for the tests?”

“Uh, yes,” the Zola look alike responded. Clint snarled again, jerking in his restraints. Bailey placed a hand on his chest in order to still him. “I... I think I have the necessary equipment to find out what is going on with the... babe.”

“You are supposed to be an obstetrician. Was I wrong?” Bailey calmly asked, though the hand on Clint’s chest began to tighten a bit. Clint couldn’t stop his gasp of surprise when it felt like something moved. Like a bag or something had been placed underneath her hand. Bailey looked down at the archer with a smile. “Wolves certainly do go through pregnancy faster than people.”

“What the fuck?” Clint couldn’t help but reply. Bailey chuckled and messed around a bit more with his chest. The motions and movements made the archer squirm. Something was going on under there and he really didn’t like it. Hering came over then and placed a hand on Clint’s other side. Clint jerked, trying to get away from them both.

“Fascinating! He’s creating milk sacs!” the doctor crowed. Bailey let out a laugh of joy even as Clint paled some more. What the fuck? What the fuck was a god damn milk sac and why did he sudden have some? Hering’s hands moved a bit further down Clint’s body, checking nearly every inch. Clint twitched and jerked, trying to get away from the prying hands. “Interesting. The sacs are only in the chestal area and not like a normal wolves that is spread through various nipples.”

“I COULD GROW WHAT?” Clint screamed in horror. No one responded to him as Bailey made mention to the birth being possibly human and what that would entail. Though a guard near the door did snigger at Clint’s response. Clint shifted to glare at the person. He knew exactly who it was too. And the man (judging by body build) had a distinguishing look. A inch into the right arm pit was a small tear. Not an easy thing to fix nor kept fixed.

“Is it possible that he will have a litter?” Bailey’s voice cut through Clint’s ire. Clint paused. What?

“I am unsure. I doubt it would be the normal five pups that a wolf would have-” Hering began.

“Five?” Clint croaked. He could fucking be having five kids... Or wolf pups? How was this his life?

“I suggest we get a wildlife researcher in here to help examine the development of the pregnancy. I know about human biology but no human would start to show at this stage. But, I am almost certain a wolf can,” Hering finished, ignoring Clint. Bailey glanced at Clint with a pleased smile before nodding her head.

“I believe our good friend Dawson survived the raid in Maine. A simple call will bring him here,” Bailey informed, looking back to Hering. A yellow suit turned and rushed out of the room. Clint figured that person was going to give this ‘Dawson’ a call to come. Bailey turned and placed a hand down on Clint’s gut. He growled at her. “Do you know how long before we can see anything on an ultrasound?”

“Within maybe a week we can see some sign of something, if it is following the wolf pregnancy. A woman’s pregnancy we have a while to wait,” Hering responded. Bailey sighed but nodded her head. “Dawson would know better than me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year! I totally had mentally planned on releasing this chapter on the 1st... But I stayed up till four cause I couldn't sleep and basically couldn't think. But, you at least get it today!
> 
> Darius is doing great. Having extreme fun playing with all his toys. Also still trying to clean up boxes and stuff from Christmas. Ugh, there is just so much!!!! I'm finally able to get him on the potty and actually having him do something. Only problem... He does it during our nap time and seemingly waits till I get comfortable before saying he has to go. It's so upsetting! But I can't deny him the ability to go just cause I don't want to get up. Today I tried having hubby take him to the bathroom before going to nap with me. They said he went. They were wrong.... Like five minutes into laying down... 'Mommy, I have to go potty.' ARGH! But, hey. He's doing it so can't fully complain. Baby Jason is doing good as well. Being a bit of a punk in the morning. His parents are giving him four ounces of baby food and when Baby Jason finishes it, he cries until he gets four ounces of formula! And sometimes, he cries after the formula!!!! So, I suggested giving him the one ounce of water that his doc had told them to start giving him. Seems to be working so far.
> 
> And, well... That's it! See you next Friday!


	20. Planning for Everything

CHAPTER 20 - Planning For Everything

It took nearly two weeks for the group of Avengers to come back together. With Ross missing, the JSC decided to send some agents to hang out in Stark Tower. Bucky spent a lot of time in his wolf form (sans metal arm/paw), stuck in the clean room as no one wanted to deal with him. Bruce ended up getting a bit too stressed to stay in the tower, so he headed out to a nearby (extremely expensive) hotel that Tony paid for. Steve and the others tried to use everything in their power to figure out what happened to Clint and Ross, but AIM was keeping rather silent about whatever they were doing. And no one else was claiming they had anything.

At the end of the two weeks, the JSC finally dispersed from the tower. As soon as they were gone, Tony had FRIDAY scan the whole tower for any recording devices and then instigated the Screw Ross function once again. Rhodey used a contact that worked in the JSC to see if any of them cared about Tony going silent. Thankfully, they didn’t. So, once certain it was safe, the others came back to the tower. But, Bucky was so riled up that they had to leave him locked up in the clean room, still without his metal arm.

“I need to go look!” Bucky snarled, pacing at the door of his ‘room.’ “Just let me out!”

“Bucky, that’s exactly why we can’t,” Steve calmly replied.

“I’ve looked at security cameras nearby. There are a lot of people that have been hanging around since I took you guys in. And looking through JSC employment history, none of the people worked with them but they all look ready to report any of us in if we get involved,” Tony added. Bucky’s snarl sounded so animalistic that the others winced.

“Look, we get that Clint is your mate, but we need to think it through rather than rush it,” Sam tried. Bucky turned to growl darkly at him. Steve sighed, running a hand through his hair.

“We’re not going to get through to him. Just leave him there and lets plan elsewhere,” Natasha snapped, her arms crossed in stress even though her body seemed relaxed as it leaned against the wall. Bucky lunged forward, slamming his hand into the wall.

“LIKE FUCKING HELL!” he shouted.

“Sergeant Barnes, be warned. If you attempt that again, I will have to send in the knock out gas,” FRIDAY warned. Bucky turned to growl up at the ceiling as if FRIDAY could be frightened of him.

“Bucky, Natasha’s right. We need to think clearly and you certainly are not,” Steve repeated. Bucky’s eyes glowed golden as his gaze turned to the soldier. Steve couldn’t help but shiver in fear.

“What if... We put Bucky in the jet with us, fly a good distance away and then let him track Clint?” Wanda suggested. It had been mentioned before but that was a risky move. Landing the jet was always a risk, never mind adding the risk of having a wolf suddenly barging off of it. “We’ve waited long enough.”

“It’s still risky,” Tony pointed out. Wanda sighed. “Most of the world has given up on the idea of Ross returning. We... We can’t just suddenly start going.”

“We?” Bucky darkly chuckled. “You mean the rest of us.”

Tony turned to glare at the soldier. “Fuck you. I’m gonna help find Clint. JSC be damned.”

“Tony!” Rhodey cried. Tony turned to look at his friend.

“No, I’m sick of this staying in the background. I’ve had a bunch of my lawyers going over the Accords, ripping it apart. We’re almost ready to move and suggest major changes,” Tony stated. The room froze as they stared at Tony. It took a moment but then Tony sighed. “I rushed into it before. I’m not going to make the same mistake again. The Accords as they stand now are dangerous. This event proves as much.”

“Tony,” Rhodey warned, shaking his head lightly. Tony huffed.

“No, I’m gonna fix this. The right way,” the genius declared. “It will be more like working with S.H.I.E.L.D all over again. But this time, not all of us will be sent to deal with an issue. It will be examined to see who would best fit the mission and they are the only ones sent. The Compound will be the main hub of everything. It will have, not just FRIDAY, but various AIs working together to quickly analyze and help track every hero. Everyone will be covered.”

“But the property damages and loss of life? That’s more what the Accords are about,” Sam mentioned. Tony nodded.

“I’ve already set up a donation fund. Similar to all those commercials you see on TV for the children in other countries, the animals stuck in crappy shelters. We’ll be like that,” Tony proudly proclaimed.

“Tony, have you not realized that those groups don’t always get anywhere near what they need to do the things they want to do? During the Battle of Manhattan, Sokovia and Lagos, we created billions, if not trillions or more, in property damage, loss of life and so much more. Without a government backing, there is no way we can afford anything,” Natasha pointed out.

“And that’s why, I’m going to be selling protection devices to the various countries who needs them. And not just the countries but maybe even cities!”

“Protection devices? What the hell?” Rhodey cried. “So, what? If you don’t have one, we won’t come help?”

“No, we will. The devices will be used to call a larger scale emergency like Manhattan and Sokovia,” Tony explained. Natasha shook her head, a hand going to her forehead.

“It will never work,” she stated. Tony frowned. “The reason the Accords were signed was because various countries and governments all backed us. When we go on our own, we are screwed.”

“It’s a work in progress,” Tony grumbled.

“Back to the main issue. How are we going to find Ross and Clint?” Wanda stressed.

\----------

AIM loved leaving Clint in a cell with Ross when not checking on him. Ross was slowly looking really haggard and depressed. Clint... Well, he was getting tired all the time, suddenly he had become hungry to the point that he almost tended to steal Ross’s serving of food and god, the emotions! As his testosterone fell, Clint was beginning to feel more and more like an actual pregnant woman and his mood swings where killer. Ross smartly hid himself in the far corner of the cell and Clint tried his best to stay in the other corner. But, he kept needing to move.

It was officially decided that Clint was doing the pregnancy rate of a wolf. But the scientists still had at least another four or six days before they can do an ultrasound to find out how many fetuses he currently carried. For a while, Clint didn’t want to know anything about it, but as the whole thing continued, he started becoming curious. The changes that kept happening to his body tended to make everyone (but Ross and himself) excited. He never did develop any more nipples along his stomach like a wolf but the milk sacs in his chest had actually made him look like he had at least a B sized chest. How they calculated that, Clint didn’t want to know. All he did know was that he could see mounds that shouldn’t be where they were.

“We need to up his food soon,” Dawson’s voice echoed down the hall. Clint winced. Of course he knew the conversation was about him. Over the past couple of days, Clint had noticed some of his well toned body wasn’t getting as ‘fat’ as the rest of him. They seemed to be getting smaller as the pregnancy dragged whatever it needed from the various parts of his body. “Unlike a woman, wolves do need more food when they are expecting. Especially because they are typically eating for four or more.”

Clint shivered, glancing down at his gut. So far, no one could physically see much of a change in his lower body. But every test they had done proved he was very much pregnant. Ross had been disgusted by it at first until one day Clint mentioned that if they ever lost interest in him, they’d move on to experimenting on the Deputy Commander.

“Protein or something else?” Bailey’s voice replied.

“Everything,” Dawson retorted. Clint growled slightly. This was getting ridiculous. He needed to get Ross and him out of here. They were in too much danger with AIM. Even if they seemed pretty competent. That day at dinner, both Ross and Clint noted that Clint’s serving of food nearly tripled Ross’s meal. Clint grimaced, looking to the man.

“Eat,” Ross muttered, grabbing his lowly serving. Clint huffed.

“I can’t eat all this,” the archer whispered. Ross snorted and glanced down at Clint’s stomach. Clint followed the gaze and sighed. “I can’t.”

“You’re gonna have to,” Ross said. Clint grunted and slowly grabbed for his tray. It was filled with various foods from burgers and hot dogs, to apples and broccoli. The archer sighed deeply. He really should share some of this with Ross. Slowly, he started to eat. Nearly five minutes later, Clint was stunned to find he ate nearly the entire serving. He looked guiltily up at Ross. The man chuckled. “I remember when my wife was pregnant. She ate everything in sight.”

“Still,” Clint muttered. Ross waved a dismissive hand at the archer. Clint sighed deeply before pushing the small remains of his serving away. Ross raised an eyebrow and pointedly looked at the rest. Clint shook his head. He wasn’t going to eat anymore of it. Ten minutes later, the deliverer of the trays came to collect them. She paused and looked at the non-empty tray. Then she looked to Clint.

“Eat,” she demanded. It was the first time the deliverer spoke to them. But they knew it was a female because there was once that her mask had fallen and they caught a look at her face. Either way, Clint just shook his head. She pointedly took Ross’s empty tray and then walked away. Clint and Ross raised eyebrows at that. They hadn’t ever allowed a tray to be left behind.

“Did she...” Ross started. Clint nodded, just as surprised. Cautiously, Ross shifted toward the tray. When nothing happened, he grabbed it and pulled it close to him. Clint moved to look down the hall. With a moments hesitation, Ross waited for a sign. Clint nodded his head and with a soft sigh, Ross began eating what was left. Nothing happened the entire time. Once Ross was finished eating, he slid the tray back to where he had snatched it from. Then they both moved back to their corners.

“Told you that I wouldn’t have been able to finish all that,” Clint whispered. Ross couldn’t help but snort. A moment later, Clint started to feel a bit tired. He frowned. This only happened when they wanted to take him out of the room. He glanced to Ross who also seemed to be affected. “Lay down before you drop.”

Ross nodded and decided to do as such. Clint also leaned over. He had learned a long time ago that when you began to feel tired in captivity, don’t try and fight. Lay down and get ready to slip unconscious. It took only another minute before he was out.

\----------

“I’m noting the possibility of multiple pups,” an extremely familiar voice broke through the fog of Clint’s mind. It wasn’t Dawson, Hering or Bailey. But it was familiar. Who was it? Clint snapped his eyes open. There was no use hiding he was asleep at all. Especially when he just wanted information on his body and the fetus inside. But he wasn’t prepared for the image that assaulted him.

“Dr. Goldstien?” Clint gasped when he spotted the new arrival. Goldstien didn’t even twitch.

“We won’t be certain until we can check the heart beats,” Dawson agreed.

“We may be able to feel the forms in the next couple of days,” Goldstien argued. Clint huffed, glaring at Goldstien. Tony had trusted this man. Hell, he knew Bucky was at the tower. Wait, shit. He knew Bucky was at the tower! He also knew for certain that Bucky was the father. Clint jerked forward, making everyone look to him. Once focused on him, Clint spit in Goldstien’s face.

“Fucking traitor!” Clint snapped. Goldstien chuckled, cleaning his face of the spit. Hering had jerked forward, almost ready to punish the archer but Bailey held the man back.

“I was honestly surprised that Tony Stark did not notice that I have worked with some rather well known AIM employees,” Goldstien informed, leaning down to face Clint better. Clint couldn’t stop his animalistic growl. “I am so pleased that you were able to get pregnant again only a week after your miscarriage.”

“Ass!” Clint growled, jerking at the restraints that held him down. Goldstien chuckled again, moving his hands to place them on Clint’s gut. The feeling made the archer jerk, trying hard to move away even with his being strapped down. Goldstien pushed down a bit harder at Clint’s movement. Surprisingly enough, that hurt and Clint couldn’t stop his gasp of pain. Goldstien quickly backed off, looking down to where he had pressed.

“We will need to watch him carefully,” the vet stated, turning to the others. Clint snarled at the man. Fuck being ‘watched.’ “Dogs have a larger cavity for holding pups than women. And his body certainly may not expand all that well.”

“Just because wolves are part of the canine family, it doesn’t mean the same thing. Wolves don’t tend to actually show they are pregnant until six to seven weeks. It is too dangerous for the female to be large for too long,” Dawson argued even as Clint paled. He may not be able to actually correctly carry children? Was his current pregnancy in danger of hurting or killing whatever or how many he was beginning to carry? Goldstien sighed.

“It’s also around that time that dogs begin to show. So, yes. Wolves and dogs have very similar designs. Especially since it is well known that dogs are descendants to wolves,” Goldstien harshly pointed out. “You asked me to be here because of my knowledge on dog breeding.”

“We asked because we learned you have been watching over our project while in Stark Tower,” Bailey snapped. That shook Clint out of his thoughts. What? Goldstien huffed. He hadn’t been hired by AIM at first? Goldstien hadn’t come to the tower to spy for AIM, he had come for his own personal reasons and then AIM found out. That threw Clint but still, Goldstien shouldn’t have agreed to work for AIM period. “If they had called on anyone else, we would have asked them to come. You were there when he was turned to a wolf. You watched it happened and had easy access to the information that was collected from his reproduction system.”

“Either way. I know what I am talking about. He needs to be closely monitored,” Goldstien snipped. Clint’s eyes narrowed as he glared at everyone in the room. As much as he hated being a ‘project’ for these people. They did have knowledge that Bruce, Cho and Tony did not have. Maybe... Maybe it would be worth it stay for a little while longer. “I would suggest ending drugging him as well. It will not do him or the fetuses any good.”

“How best should we continue? He is a well known fighter and wolves tend to be very protective of their young. It would not be safe for any of us to walk him through the halls,” Hering informed. Goldstien looked to Clint and the archer just increased his glare at the man. Screw this guy for trying to help AIM.

“If wolves are so protective of their young, he’d know better than to fight in this condition. Being drugged will cause issues for certain if it goes on. And fighting anyone could risk getting hit in the gut, no matter how you try to protect it,” Goldstien mentioned, his gaze never leaving Clint as if this was more a warning that a suggestion to the others. Clint couldn’t help but give a pointed swallow as he thought over Goldstien’s words. The man was right. Even though he didn’t want to be pregnant, he also wanted to protect whatever was growing inside him. Learning about his miscarriage was a blow and that was only a few days of knowing the possibility. Now, he knew... To lose them now would hurt. Eventually, Clint looked away from the vet.

“How about we compromise?” Bailey suggested, waving a hand to the equipment surrounding them. “All of this can be moved quickly and easily. With a few extra guards in the room while we move everything, he would never have to leave this room.”

Clint looked around. When the machines were gone, Clint could see the amount of space he would have. It was slightly larger than his cell. And, ironically enough... There was an actual attached bathroom. It would almost be like living in S.H.I.E.L.D quarters all over again. Even if there wasn’t furniture, like a bed.

“We cannot leave him strapped to this table for seven or more weeks. It is just as dangerous,” Bailey continued.

“I agree. That is likely our best move for now,” Hering agreed. “Lets begin moving equipment now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter down.
> 
> Darius is doing great. Currently annoying me because he wants me to do stuff I don't want to help him with at the moment. He just isn't listening to me saying no. But, he'll have to get used to that at some point. We've had some small issues with him, basically regarding sleep and last night bathroom issues. Overall though, he's great. Baby Jason is giving his parents a bit of a hard time at night but... That's what babies do.
> 
> Short note, but that's all I can really think of... Until next week!


	21. Not Waiting

CHAPTER 21 - Not Waiting

Bucky waited for two more days to pass before he decided to seemingly calm down. Almost like he was giving in to Clint being missing. It took two days more of him being ‘demure’ before Steve and Tony decided to finally let him out of the clean room. After his freak out four days prior, all plans on finding Clint and Ross had been made outside of his company. So, Bucky wanted to learn what everyone had planned. It wasn’t much.

“Buck, we still have no idea where they are being kept. Without knowing that, we can’t really figure out what to do,” Steve muttered when the soldier demanded to know their plans.

“How have you not figured it out yet? It’s been nearly three and a half weeks!” the soldier cried, tossing both arms into the air now that the others decided it would be okay for him to get his metal one back. Steve shook his head.

“There have been times before where one of us has gone missing for months. We aren’t giving up,” Tony pointed out, his arms crossed over his chest, showing his agitation at having not figured it out yet. Natasha also looked a little peeved. Sam, Rhodey, Wanda and Vision all wisely stayed out of it. Bruce admitted he wasn’t going to return to the tower until Clint was found. Having him there with Bucky so upset was not a good idea for any of them. Bucky placed his hands over his face.

“That doesn’t make me feel any better, Stark,” Bucky moaned. Tony sighed deeply.

“Didn’t really say it to make you feel better. Just pointing out that we don’t need to panic yet. If it is AIM, or likely any other group, once they find out what’s going on with Clint, they’ll want to keep him alive. So, we have time,” Tony mentioned.

“Time? Tony, what if they decided he’s too much of a flight risk and decide they’d have better luck looking him over in an autopsy?” Bucky countered.

“Buck, you need to calm down,” Steve tried to placate. Bucky huffed.

“I’m trying. But we have no plan. No idea where he is. And no idea if he is even alive!” Bucky snapped. Steve shifted, almost as if ready to attack. Sensing it, the soldier fought to calm himself down. There was no way he’d get locked up in that clean room again. He needed to get out. No, he needed to find his mate.

“We are working as best we can. Everyone has gone quiet and so there is no trail. This is also a rather high priority in news outlets considering Ross was taken as well. Even with the JSC not investigating, people are still trying to figure out what happened,” Natasha explained, moving closer to Bucky as if to place a hand on the soldier’s shoulder in an attempt to calm him. But she must have realized her action because she stopped a few seconds after she tried to move.

“I get that. Really, I do. I just-” Bucky started.

“We all want answers,” Wanda interrupted. Bucky sighed deeply. “Everyone is doing all they can.”

“Not everyone,” Bucky mumbled, his focused on the ground. No one really heard him so when he walked off toward the elevators, no one went to stop him. Once the doors closed, Bucky pressed the button for the lobby.

“Sergeant Barnes, I believe it is prudent that you stay in the tower,” FRIDAY called even though the elevator did begin to move down. Bucky nodded.

“Just... Need to be around people that aren’t... Aren’t all of them,” Bucky evaded. FRIDAY did not respond and so when the doors opened, Bucky only waited a second before moving off toward the back door of the lobby. He only had moments before FRIDAY realized he was planning on leaving. Just as he got to the door, FRIDAY called out.

“Sergeant Barnes, I believe this is-” Bucky didn’t let her finish as he rushed out the door. A quick look around to see if anyone was watching and with no one in sight, Bucky shifted and took off to run through the shadows.

\----------

“Five pups,” Dawson reported, as Goldstien moved the diode around Clint’s gut. Clint couldn’t stop but stare at the machine that showed darkened blurs of something in his gut. Then Goldstien pressed something on the monitor and suddenly the room filled with various thumping. Clint froze even as Goldstien shifted around, making areas of importance.

“What?” the archer started to ask.

“That is their heartbeats,” Hering was nice enough to explain to the archer. Clint couldn’t help his sigh of relief. He had been afraid that something was wrong with them.

“So far they seem to be developing on track with a canine pregnancy,” Goldstien informed. Clint frowned. They kept saying that... And that women weren’t as fast as wolves... So... How long did he have before the ‘pups’ were born?

“I am pleased to hear things are going well,” Bailey chuckled as Goldstien removed the diode and started cleaning it and Clint’s stomach. They had forgone giving Clint a shirt back after they had switched him to this room. Clint was grateful that they gave him new pants these past few days.

“For now,” Goldstien muttered. Bailey frowned.

“What do you mean ‘for now?’” she snapped. Goldstien sighed.

“As mentioned before, canines have a larger gut size to be able to handle the multiple pups. Women can also handle various infants but... This is the first male we have ever dealt with,” Goldstien mentioned. Hering nodded.

“Even with only one human infant, we would be close to having issues as it grew. There is no certainty to him having been able to tolerate any of this,” Hering pointed out. “We are in new territory, not just with human and wolf pregnancy but also a male pregnancy.”

“So, we should have another subject that is just male?” Bailey wondered, her mind thinking to Ross.

“No!” Clint cried, knowing who the doctor was thinking of. He had pointedly not asked about Ross in an effort to make sure they had forgotten that he was ‘untouched’ in experiments. But it apparently that hadn’t worked as well as he expected. Bailey looked to the archer with a large smirk on her face.

“Oh, please. He has been so lovely in all the other tests,” she chuckled. Clint growled.

“What have you done to him?” Bailey laughed.

“Nothing that won’t... Well, maybe won’t harm him,” she retorted before nodding to the others. Slowly they left and a bunch of guards came into the room and moved the equipment out. They had learned after the first day to have him strapped to the table while removing items and while putting items in the room. Also, they had made the locks on the table automated so they could safely unlock him while being outside.

A few minutes later and Clint finally felt the locks disengage. He was quick to get on his feet. They had given him a large collection of water, Gatorade, juice and just overall healthy drinks earlier in the day. By the time they had come in to check him, Clint had to seriously take a piss. But they refused to let him. So, now, he rushed to the attached bathroom.

\----------

Bucky honestly had no idea how he was going to scent Clint out. It had been the wolf part of him that had done it before. And now, it was up to him alone. He had had only a few days without the wolf to really get a sense of what Clint smelt like but... He hadn’t been paying attention. So now, he wandered around the city (mostly at night), trying to get any sign of where Clint could have gone. And... He was as lost as the others had been.

Nearly a week after he had run away from his friends, Bucky decided to leave New York City. There was a high chance that AIM hadn’t kept Clint and Ross in the city. In fact, it’d likely be stupid. So, he left and started wandering around, unsure of where to go. It took a day or two after leaving the city for him to realize that he was tracking something. He still couldn’t tell what it was, but he just felt he had to go this particular way. With a mental smirk, he took off at a solid run, ignoring the fact that he hadn’t learned how to do this while at the tower. It suddenly felt absolutely natural.

He ran for another two days before something told him to stop. There was nothing around, but Bucky was certain that there was a reason he had been brought here. So, he sniffed around. Circling the spot numerous times, Bucky couldn’t find out why he had been drawn here. Growling to himself, Bucky finally headed off and found an abandoned den. How he knew it was abandoned, Bucky had no idea. He just knew it was. With a depressed sigh, Bucky curled himself up and fell asleep.

\----------

“The tracker says he’s here,” Natasha’s voice rang through Bucky’s head as he woke up. He stiffened. What? What tracker? Then he remembered the nanites that Tony had placed on that collar so long ago. The genius had mentioned the possibility of the little things getting onto him. But that had been long enough ago that Bucky figured they had all dropped off of him. Then his mind flashed to all the times that FRIDAY had had to put him to sleep since Clint disappeared. And all the food that Tony personally delivered to him. They must have known he’d run for it.

“Well, I can’t see him,” Steve mentioned, his voice slightly snappish. Bucky growled deep in his throat and certainly made sure it was loud enough for everyone to hear. There was a pause in movement outside of the den. They must have heard him.

“Could that be Bucky?” Sam’s voice hesitantly wondered. Bucky tried his hardest not to huff in humor and continue growling but there must have been something cause suddenly Steve was at the entrance to the den.

“Hey, Buck,” the Captain greeted as if there wasn’t a chance of Bucky being a wild wolf. Bucky stopped growling and instead pointedly huffed a snort into Steve’s face. Steve couldn’t stop his disgusted face as he reared back in surprise. “Jesus! What the fuck!?”

Bucky snorted a laugh and then crawled out of the den. Clothes dropped on the ground in front of him and he looked to see Tony had been the one who did it. Bucky huffed again, grabbed at least the pants from the pile and headed off into a nearby bush. Everyone gave him the moment to change and get partiality dressed before coming back out. Steve looked up at him with a dark glare.

“What did you expect me to do, Punk?” Bucky snorted.

“Jerk,” Steve mumbled under his breath. Bucky gave his friend a small smile before leaning forward and picking up the shirt that had been left.

“So, you have a tracker on me?” Bucky questioned, pointedly looking at Tony. The genius stared him down for a moment before looking away, guilty. After that, he pulled out his tablet that was clearly attached to FRIDAY. “Not bad.”

“What?” Tony asked, surprised. Bucky shrugged.

“Hadn’t expected it. Not surprised, given how I was acting,” Bucky admitted. Tony gave a small laugh before focusing solidly on the tablet.

“You shouldn’t have gone off on your own,” Wanda chastised. Bucky sighed.

“I know, I just...”

“Need to find him, we get it,” Rhodey finished. Bucky nodded. Rhodey looked around. “Hey, why here?”

“Honestly, I have no idea,” Bucky admitted, rubbing his flesh hand against the back of his neck. Natasha moved forward quickly and smacked the back of his head. Bucky willingly allowed it to happen. He _had_ technically fucked up.

“You ran away in an attempt to find Clint, and instead came here and now don’t know why?” She angrily listed. Bucky winced. Hearing it all now he realized how bad it all sounded. Natasha rolled her eyes. “Now I see why Clint is your mate.”

“Hey,” Bucky complained but the others twittered with laughter.

“Alright, back to the main matter at hand. Why here?” Sam called, pulling them back to the main issue. Bucky sighed.

“I have no clue. Just... As I was wandering out of the city, I felt a draw here. I don’t know why,” Bucky insisted. Tony suddenly perked up and looked around.

“Tony?” Steve inquired. Tony ignored him and instead headed off to the direction that passed over the den Bucky had slept in. “Tony?”

Bucky trotted after the genius. Tony certainly seemed to have a plan of some kind. Slowly, everyone began to trail after them. A good 3000 feet away was a small building that almost looked like some sort of outhouse. And outhouse that had four guards surrounding it. The group froze at the edge of the woods to just watch.

“So, there is that,” Tony muttered.

“You think that that building is connected to the area Bucky was waiting at?” Steve wondered. Tony nodded before tapping some things on his tablet. It showed heat signatures of the area. They could see the group of them and the four at the outhouse but back where they had come from was a large collection of signatures. Steve glanced back, mentally calculating everything before nodding. “That’s above where were had stopped.”

“So, Clint could be right below that point,” Bucky guessed. Tony nodded.

“Well, lets go in,” Natasha suggested. Everyone turned to look at her. “Listen, we are all here. They don’t know we’re here. This will be the best time to strike.”

“Not all of us have our suits,” Sam grumbled, looking around. Basically only Bucky, Tony, Rhodey and him weren’t ready. It was proven when Natasha pulled out her Widow Bites. Everyone knew Steve’s shield was attached to his back. Wanda and Vision didn’t need a suit. Tony glanced at Sam before tapping his chest. Slowly, nanites formed the Iron Man armor around him. Sam frowned and turned to Rhodey.

“I can’t do that,” the army man muttered. They both looked to Bucky who just raised an eyebrow at them and lifted his left arm up a bit. Rhodey snorted.

“Fuck you,” Sam growled before turning and storming off. Rhodey followed after him.

“Should we wait?” Wanda asked. Natasha raised an eyebrow before glancing at Steve, Bucky and Tony. They all shook their heads. Clint had waited for them long enough. Wanda sighed. “Guess not.”

Natasha and Bucky slipped through the trees, heading off in different directions to ready their attacks. Just as Sam and Rhodey returned, Natasha and Bucky struck. The guards didn’t even have a chance at reporting anything. They just went down. And without waiting for the others, the duo opened the door and headed in. Steve and Tony rushed forward and went in next, followed quickly by Vision, Wanda then Rhodey and Sam. Through the door was a long hallway with no doors on either side.

“A bottle neck. Not good,” Natasha whispered even as she continued going down the hall. Bucky was close on her heels. Rhodey shifted himself to be in the back of the pack, intent on using his armor a protection point for the others. They got about halfway through the hall before suddenly an alarm began blaring. Natasha, Bucky and Steve cussed before they ran down the rest of the hall.

“There are at least ten people waiting for us,” Tony reported as they kept going. Steve shifted forward, taking Natasha’s place and without pausing, Bucky and Steve shouldered through the door, sending it flying into at least four of the people waiting. Gun fire quickly went off with Steve’s shield and Bucky’s arm defending most of it. Tony shifted to stand between the duo and set off a repulsor blast into the remaining people. It worked and they quickly moved on, Bucky leading the way. After blasting through nearly thirty or more people, they heard something.

“HELP!” a voice called. Steve twisted to find the door and without waiting for anyone else, he busted through. The guy inside looked up. “Oh, thank god.”

“Who are you?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I know. I missed yesterday. Sorry. Got a bit down in the dumps so I didn't do much of anything.
> 
> Darius has been doing well. This week has been a tough week for us. Hubby had a lot of late night shifts which none of us are used to. Because of that, I was the one who had to put Darius to bed. One night, he spelt with me in my bed. NEVER AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!! I woke up so tired and sore that no matter how much the poor kiddo cries, I ain't doing it unless there is a bigger bed and hubby is on the other side. Meaning, a King sized bed rather than the Queen we have now. So, I've had to promise Darius that 'Daddy will come join you when he gets back.' And hubby has been great in doing that for me. Story time has become fun. Out of all the normal stories that hubby reads to Darius, Darius tends to pick the longest one for me. And not just the longest one... It's one where I have to sing songs... Thank goodness I don't mind doing that. Baby Jason seems to be okay. Haven't seen much of him this week as his parents have either been in their room or out of the house. When I do see him, he usually is upset cause he wants a bottle or is happy and smiling and playing or getting packed up in his car seat to leave.


	22. Rescues

CHAPTER 22 - Rescues

Clint froze when a loud alarm ripped through the silence of the room he had been left in for so long. He slowly got up to his feet. The docs had been leaving him alone the past few days. According to them, all five pups were growing perfectly health, so he didn’t need as many check-ups as he had before. He still wasn’t showing, but Clint could feel the weight in his gut. In fact, his bladder could really feel it. He spent nearly more time in the bathroom then he did asleep on the stiff bed/table they had left him with.

The alarm though... That was new. Curious, even though he knew it was pointless, Clint headed toward the door and leaned his head against it, trying to hear anything. The door was thick steel and impossible to hear through. But that didn’t stop him from trying. A minute or two after the alarm started, the door snapped open to at least five guards standing there, guns aimed at him. Dr. Bailey was behind them.

“You will come with us or you’re pups will get harmed,” she declared even as two of the guns switched to aiming at his stomach. Clint couldn’t stop his shiver of fear at that. While he didn’t care about his own safety, suddenly carrying such precious cargo made him more reluctant to get hurt. With a sigh, Clint nodded his head and moved to leave the room. Two guards placed themselves in front of Clint. Bailey stood to his right, a small gun pressed against his stomach. Another guard stood on his left and the last two took up the rear.

“Where are you gonna take me?” Clint wondered, curious but figuring he wasn’t going to get an answer.

“A different facility,” Bailey stated. Clint raised an eyebrow in surprise at her answer. They kept walking. At least half a minute into them walking, a door was opened and Ross was harshly pushed out of the room beyond. Two more guards came into the hall as Ross was pushed to stand by Clint. “We need to move quickly.”

As much as Clint was tempted to say ‘fuck that,’ he found he couldn’t. Especially when Bailey pointedly shoved her gun against Clint’s stomach again. Ross glanced down at Clint’s gut before giving the archer a worried look. Clint just shook his head. Nothing either of they could do about it now. They just had to keep moving. A few steps later and the alarm finally went silent.

They got a good distance away from the room Clint had been kept in when they began to hear the sounds of a gun fight. Clint stiffened a bit, looking quickly to Bailey as if she was going to hesitate. Bailey kept the group moving. Further on down, there was an intersection that Bailey made them turn left down. The gun fight was slowly starting to get louder and so Bailey pushed the group on a bit faster. Clint huffed, his center of balance off just enough that jogging or running was a bit more of an issue than he had ever thought. It was almost like he not only had a healing gun shot wound in his gut but also in his ass, making every move jarring.

“What’s going on?” Ross suddenly whimpered. A guard knocked him in the back for the Deputy Commander’s trouble. Ross stumbled but quickly righted himself. Clint frowned. Something was wrong, and not just them being quickly moved, nor the alarm going off. But before he could really question it, the group entered a large room that seemed mostly to be a garage.

“I want to be out of here in two minutes, get everything ready,” Bailey demanded as their group dwindled down to only three guards. Clint found his eyes narrowing. Three guards, even while pregnant was stupid for a person like him. Bailey didn’t seem like a highly trained agent so, knocking her down and stealing her gun would be simple. So simple that he’d likely be able to shoot the remaining three guards before they even noticed. Clint and Ross were quickly led toward a large van. Similar to the transport van that Ross had used so many weeks prior. They were both hustled on before the back door was shut. Clint raised an eyebrow.

“Are they fucking serious?” he muttered at the lack of guards. Ross even huffed out a surprised breath. He slowly moved over to the door and placed a hand on it. Clint heard the crackle of electricity before he saw Ross stumble back in surprise. When Ross blinkingly moved to sit back down, Clint smirked. “Okay, now I feel a bit better.”

Ross turned and glared at him. “You think that’s better?”

“Well, for my pride,” Clint replied. Ross rolled his eyes and sat further into the seat he had chosen. “They do anything to you?”

“Left me alone outside of food and drink,” Ross answered. Clint frowned. That didn’t sound like AIM. They had been working on a few different projects that required human experimentation. So, why leave Ross alone? Outside, the sounds of a gun fight returned. The duo perked up, listening. A moment later, there was a loud clang that echoed through the space. Both of them winced.

“Ow,” the archer moaned. Ross nodded his agreement. Then there was another clang. This time, Clint dropped down to his knees in between the seats. Ross quickly followed suit. And thank god they did as suddenly the upper half of the van got peppered with bullets.

“OH SHIT!” Ross cried, covering his head with his hands. Clint gritted his teeth as his hands twitched. He really wanted a weapon right now. The clang returned but with the walls weakened, it actually busted through. Clint perked up a bit when he saw it land on the ground between them. It was Steve’s shield. Smiling, he grabbed it and headed toward the back doors. As he got to Ross, the man looked up. “What are you-”

“Move,” Clint growled even as he pushed Ross aside to get by. Once by, Clint used the shield to slam into the seam between the doors. It cracked open enough to look out but not escape. Clint snarled at the door and tried again, this time the doors busted open. Without thinking, Clint jumped out of the van and searched around for his team. Steve was off to the left, closer to the entrance, fighting hand-to-hand against numerous assailants. Natasha was only a few steps beyond him, shooting at nearly anything that moved. Sam had taken flight through the open room and was using his ‘feather attack’ thingy to knocked down a few people. Clint could only assume the others were still clearing the base.

After spotting the three members, Clint noted a sniper on the walkway across from Steve. Sam hadn’t noticed the guy and wouldn’t notice him in time to save Steve, or Natasha. So, Clint hurled the shield, thanking that it was light so he didn’t actually need Steve’s strength to throw. A second later, it clanged into the sniper and the guy fell as the shield bounced off a few areas before coming back to the archer. Clint smirked when he easily caught it.

“Aw, Steve ain’t ever gettin you back,” Clint chuckled before focusing on the mess around. He quickly chucked the shield again, bouncing it off of at least four people before it came back to him. With a whoop, Clint spun and did it again. The best thing about being a science experiment gone right, no one wanted to shoot him. Behind him, Clint was honestly surprised that Ross stayed in the van, watching as the archer attacked anyone who got close to them. But it was a good thing, cause Clint was pretty certain they wouldn’t hesitate to shoot the Deputy Commander.

Clint kept going with the shield. By now a lot of the AIM soldiers had begun to not even attempt to go near the archer. So, Clint used that to begin helping Steve, Natasha and Sam. The first time Steve’s shield flew by his face, the man jerked back in surprise so hard that he took three steps back. On the second time, Steve followed the trajectory back to Clint who simply smiled and waved before tossing the shield again. Steve huffed out a laugh.

“Found Barton,” he called through the comms. Natasha jerked up in her fight and glanced over to see the archer standing by the damaged van. Clint didn’t even notice her as he was busy catching Steve’s shield and then flinging it toward another group of agents trying to sneak up on the duo. A moment later, doors on the other side of the garage blew open. Tony, Wanda and Vision followed right after. Above there was an explosion that sent five AIM agents flying through the air to land heavily on the ground below. Rhodey quickly flew over the ledge as Bucky appeared over the railing, looking down. It took the soldier less than a second to spot Clint down below.

“Hey, Stevie. Looks like you got some competition on Frisbee tossing,” Bucky joked, hopping over the railing to land heavily on the ground below.

“Ha, ha, ha,” Steve retorted, taking down another agent and surprisingly being forced to dodge his shield as it sailed past again. Steve turned and glared lightly at the archer who simply smirked as he caught it again. It didn’t take much longer before the area was clear of enemy agents. Once it was, the group headed over toward Clint. Bucky immediately lifted Clint into a hug. But when he went to squeeze, Clint squirmed.

“Don’t,” the archer warned as Bucky let him go with a frown. Clint blushed. “I... I’m pregnant.”

The group froze.

“What?” Natasha finally managed to get out. Clint sighed as Ross exited the van behind him. No one took any notice of it.

“Uh... Exactly what I said, I’m pregnant,” Clint repeated even as shifted Steve’s shield behind him. Steve frowned and held a hand out to take it back. Clint didn’t even look, moving half a step away in order to keep the shield from the Captain. Steve just rolled his eyes.

“How? I thought,” Tony started. Clint shook his head.

“It’s a wolf thing,” the archer told him. Out of the entire group, only Tony knew of the miscarriage he had suffered. Tony’s eyes narrowed on the archer’s gut but he dropped the subject.

“How far along?” Sam wondered.

“Five weeks,” Ross answered for the archer. Clint nodded in agreement.

“Deputy Commander Ross, it’s good to see you’re okay,” Rhodey called, his voice trying to be sweet. Ross snorted and shook his head.

“It’s fine. I won’t say anything, Colonel Rhodes,” the man informed. Rhodey sagged in relief. “To be honest, I’m surprised you took as long as you did.”

“Your fault, most likely,” Clint huffed, turning to look at him, forgetting about Steve’s shield. Once in range, Steve reached forward and grabbed it. Clint turned to look in surprise before scowling. “Spoilsport.”

“I’m assuming this wasn’t sanctioned by the Joint Security Counsel,” Ross grumbled. Everyone but Clint nodded. “I’m assuming they brought in my replacement?”

“Yeah,” Rhodey admitted. Ross nodded. He wasn’t surprised. Clint had mentioned as much during their first few days and Ross had even had a slight idea of it coming. No one would compromise agents to look for one man and a fugitive. Unless that fugitive arrived somewhere else.

“Okay, I’m sorry. Can we go back to the whole five weeks pregnant thingy?” Sam questioned, looking everyone over. Clint sighed.

“The pregnancy is based on being a wolf. So, I’m due in like four weeks,” Clint began but stopped at the uproar of voices. But Clint did note, Bucky wasn’t reacting. He was just staring at the archer’s gut. Clint sighed again, waiting for everyone to stop talking. As they quieted down, Clint gave a soft moan before continuing. “I... I’m pregnant with... With five pups.”

“WHAT?” the whole group shouted. Clint shrugged, unsure what else he could say about it all. It was the honest truth and nothing could change that.

“I’m sorry. But can we have this conversation elsewhere?” Ross wondered a moment later. Clint rolled his eyes. Of course Ross would say that.

“I... I see no reason not too,” Steve mumbled, looking at everyone. Scowling, Natasha headed off first. Ross quickly followed her. Slowly, the group dwindled down to just Clint, Bucky, Steve and Tony. “Are you okay with all this?”

“I wasn’t at first. But... Now,” Clint started before shrugging again. “I honestly want them.”

“What? How can you want them?” Tony hissed. Clint sighed.

“They’re... They’re mine. I don’t know how else to explain it. Just, I want them,” Clint told them, his gaze focusing on Bucky to see what his response would be. Bucky glanced down at Clint’s stomach. Having one child was scary enough to think of. Never mind having five. The duo just stood there for a bit, staring at the other. Steve shifted, uncomfortable with all this. Tony went to speak but with a sharp look from Steve, he stopped himself. “Buck?”

“Five?” Bucky finally asked. Clint nodded. Bucky glanced down to the archer’s stomach again. There was another pause before Bucky’s face slowly morphed into a small smile. “Five.”

Then, Bucky pulled Clint to a hug, making certain that his arms where placed high above Clint’s gut. Clint laughed lightly and hugged the soldier back. Tony huffed.

“Guess I’ll have to make room... And stock up on raw meats,” the genius happily complained. Bucky, without letting go of Clint, flipped him off. That got Steve and Tony to laugh.

“Come on guys, let’s get out of here,” Steve suggested. The group smiled and headed off, Bucky holding Clint’s hand like the devil was going to steal the archer away. Clint refused to let go as well. He had gone far too long without any of his friends. Hell, he’s had longer times away before but... He hadn’t been filled with the hormonal changes from pregnancy. As they walked, Bucky looked over to Clint and the archer looked back. With a smile, Bucky squeezed Clint hand a bit and spoke.

“Five.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another week, another chapter.
> 
> Darius has been doing good. Relaxing a bit, actually listening a bit more about things we tell him to do... So, it's getting better. Just today we got a delivery of Disney Magic Bands for our Disney trip in February. First thing Darius says is 'ohh! New watches!' Tee hee. Then he wanted to take them and wear them. Sorry kiddo, we need these bands for our trip and we don't wanna lose them this early. Can't wait until the trip. Baby Jason is getting closer to crawling lately and seems to be getting into standing on his own faster. He might go cruising before crawling. Either way, he'll likely be on the move soon.


	23. Denning

CHAPTER 23 - Denning

Once they arrived back at the tower, Bruce had returned and, with Cho at his side, was waiting for everyone at the edge of the room. Both of them were surprised when they saw Ross coming off the jet along with the others. But when Bruce noticed Clint, the scientist didn’t really care. Instead he walked forward and pulled the archer into a small hug. Clint chuckled and hugged the guy back.

“It’s good to see you again,” Bruce whispered as Natasha stormed past, a worried Sam and Wanda on her heels. Clint nodded, giving Bruce a slightly tighter squeeze before letting go. As Bruce let go, he backed up, his eyes quickly dropping to Clint’s gut in surprise. Clint paused, furrowing his brow as Bruce looked back up at Clint. “How far?”

“Five weeks,” Clint huffed, honestly not surprised that Bruce would notice. Rhodey, Ross and Vision left this time. Bruce glanced back down at the archer’s gut. He slowly lifted a hand before pausing and looking back up at Clint. The archer smirked and nodded. With permission, Bruce placed a hand on Clint’s stomach and lightly pushed around. He gasped at the movements he found.

“How many?” Bruce wondered with a frown. Clint chuckled as Bucky moved to stand by his mate.

“Five.” Bruce’s gaze sharply focused on the archer.

“That is dangerously high,” the doctor mentioned. Clint nodded. He had heard the same thing from Hering and Goldstien. Dawson just said it was normal, not understanding that Clint wasn’t a wolf. Bucky frowned. Clint hadn’t mentioned that earlier.

“Dangerous?” the soldier asked. Bruce looked to Bucky.

“A man’s stomach cavity is not able to stretch and move as much as a woman’s. Having just one child is risky enough on his system even if everything else seems fine. But five... That stretches safety even for a woman,” Cho answered, stepping forward. Clint nodded. Again, he had heard all this before. But Bucky seemed to get extremely worried. “We will need to call Dr. Gol-”

“No,” Clint snapped, his voice dark and guttural. Cho and Bruce frowned as Bucky looked to his mate, surprised. Tony and Steve both furrowed their brows. What was wrong with the doc that had been working with both wolves for a while now?

“Why not, feathers?” Tony asked. Clint sighed.

“Goldstien worked for AIM. He was there during most of my ‘appointments’ with the other scientists,” Clint growled, his voice dangerous but everyone could tell he was just furious with the traitor. Bucky placed a hand on Clint’s shoulder and the archer cooled down a bit, leaning into his mate’s touch.

“Well, that’s unfortunate,” Tony grumbled. “I’ll go look up someone else.”

“Go with a wildlife expert, please,” Clint suggested. Tony paused with a frown. “A vet is all well and good, but Tony, we’re wolves. Not dogs.”

Bucky and Steve snorted as Tony’s mouth dropped in surprise before slowly nodding. Bruce took sympathy on his friend and turned to follow the genius into the tower and down to their labs. Cho smiled at the pair.

“First off, congratulations,” the doc told them. Clint and Bucky nodded their thanks. “And, I had done a bit of research into pregnancies while you were gone. But, I do not have true knowledge of having five children. If you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to get in touch with one of my friends.”

“Sure,” Clint agreed. Cho smiled. “I trust you enough that I know you won’t screw us over with any of it.”

Not that he hadn’t trusted Tony or anything but at least in the medical field, Cho would have personally met these people. Cho smiled. “I’m pleased.”

With that, she turned and headed inside. That left Steve, Bucky and Clint still on the roof. Steve moved forward, placing a hand on each of his friends. They both turned to look at him. “I’m glad things are beginning to work out.”

“Same here, Cap. Same here,” Clint chuckled.

\----------

The next couple of days, Clint didn’t get to see much of the tower outside of the labs, yet again. He didn’t mind it as Tony, Bruce, Cho, Cho’s friend-Dr. Janice West and the wildlife expert-Dr. Michael Rook, all needed to get caught up with the five weeks they had missed. As Bailey, Hering, Goldstien and Dawson had said before, Clint was in perfect health, the pups were developing on track and everything seemed normal. Natasha had taken off on a one woman’s hell path on tracking down any AIM agent that even suspected anything about Clint or Bucky. She claimed it was her ‘baby shower’ gift to the happy couple, not that anyone was going to officially celebrate anything. Rhodey and Ross had gone back to Washington in an effort to save Ross’s job and make sure that everyone was let off scot-free for saving the ex-Deputy Commander and Clint. Wanda and Vision had taken the jet back to Wakanda, using that as a mini vacation and Sam had gone off to visit his mother. By the time Clint hit the six week mark of his pregnancy, the archer was stunned when he woke up as a wolf.

_“BUCKY!”_ the archer howled, terrified he had done something to the pups. Bucky was the first one to reach Clint’s side with Bruce, Cho, West and Tony right behind. Steve and Rook followed a moment later.

“Jesus, Clint,” Bucky moaned, heading over to his panicking mate.

“You changed,” Bruce grunted as if it wasn’t obvious to anyone. His face switched from worried to something more like disappointed and upset. “Clint.”

_“I know! I shouldn’t. I just woke up like this!”_ Clint whined, his eyes focusing on Bruce. Bucky quickly repeated what the archer had said. Bruce winced. He knew Clint wouldn’t have done anything to danger the pups. There had to be another reason for this to happen. _“Are the pups gonna be okay?”_

“We will begin checking that now. But, I don’t see why not,” Cho replied. Everyone looked to her. “A pregnancy like this is likely running on instinct. Considering most of it has been following a normal wolf pregnancy, his body must have recognized it.”

“At around this time, a female wolf would start to show,” Rook added. “It does make sense.”

“It does decrease the risk of any issues within these final weeks,” West continued. “But, yes. Too be safe, we should check on everything.”

After running numerous tests with both human methods and wolf methods, it was determined that all five of the pups were unharmed in the process. Clint sagged in relief, making certain to keep his weight to one side so he didn’t crush the pups. Bucky began petting Clint, pleased with the news that things had taken a bit of a better turn. After the excitement of the change was over, Clint asked for permission to wander around the tower. Tony, who had gotten used to Bucky and Clint wandering around like a wolf before, gave blanket permission for both of them to wander.

“Where are we going?” Bucky questioned as he and Steve followed behind Clint. The archer said nothing, just moved about, sniffing various areas of the tower. Bucky frowned, glancing to Steve as if he’d know.

“Just let him be. You’ve both been going through a lot lately. It’s easy to get stressed,” Steve mentioned. Bucky rolled his eyes. It was something Sarah Rogers had told the soldier numerous times as Bucky had brought home a sick or injured Steve. Bucky never took the statement to heart, especially seeing as Steve couldn’t stay out of trouble. And he certainly wasn’t going to with Steve reminding him of it.

“I just-”

“You worry. Especially after him having been taken only days before. I get it,” Steve soothed with a small chuckle. Bucky gave him a half heart-ed glare. A few more hours in and the trio had gone through the range, the gym, Bucky’s floor, Clint’s floor, Steve’s floor, (attempted) Natasha’s floor, and now had begun searching the common room where Bruce and Tony had gone to take a break. Cho, West and Rook had all gone home for the night.

“What’s goin on with Lassie?” Tony questioned as Clint turned and started sniffing in the living room without even glancing in the direction of the kitchen. Bruce looked up from whatever he was reading about on the table to see what the genius was talking about. Meanwhile, Bucky turned and gave the genius a soft growl. Tony raised his hands in defense. “Sorry. Just, curious.”

“We’ve been wandering all over the tower,” Steve explained, glancing over to Clint before heading into the kitchen to join Bruce and Tony. After a moment’s hesitation, Bucky followed. “He’s been sniffing everywhere but hasn’t said anything.”

“Okay, seems weird for... Forget it, Clint,” Tony admitted, unable to come up with a good bird and wolf name. Bucky snorted which made the genius flip him off. Steve and Bruce chuckled as well. Tony looked between the duo. “Traitors.”

“Believe me. I know this whole this is weird but... We’ve never dealt with a situation like this,” Steve replied. Tony huffed.

“I just wanna know why he keeps sniffing everything,” Bucky grumbled, looking back to Clint who had stopped in a far corner of the room. He was staring at an open storage area under the TV. Bruce frowned before snapping his fingers, drawing everyone’s attention, including Clint’s.

“He’s nesting!” Bruce exclaimed.

“He’s what?” Bucky and Tony asked at the same time. Bruce winced.

“Not really the right term. He’s trying to find a den to have the pups in,” Bruce explained. Clint huffed.

_“Seriously? That’s why I keep looking around? Fucking hell,”_ the archer growled, mostly to himself. Bucky snorted, looking back to Clint.

“You didn’t know what you were doing?” he questioned, ignoring everyone’s inability to understand Clint.

_“Excuse me for having a bit of a different reaction to wolf-dom then you,”_ the archer snarled before turning and wandering off. Bucky sighed, watching him leave.

“Did you guys just get into a fight?” Tony wondered.

“He didn’t get why he was looking and got upset when I asked about it,” Bucky admitted, turning to put his back to the living room. Steve placed a hand on his friend’s back.

“Don’t worry about it. He doesn’t hold grudges,” Steve soothed.

“That long,” Tony muttered under his breath. Bruce smacked the genius as Steve and Bucky leveled him with twin glares. “What?”

“Just stop being an ass, for once in your life,” Steve hissed. Tony rolled his eyes.

“Have you met me?”

“Touche,” Bucky chuckled. Tony waved his hands to the soldier like a ‘ha, ha! Here, he gets it’ type manner. Then he realized what he was doing and turned a dark look at the soldier. Bucky smiled. “You left it open.”

“Onto a different subject,” Bruce started. “What does everyone want for dinner?”

“Lasagna,” Bucky stated first.

“Pork roast,” Tony countered.

“Chicken parmesan,” Steve added. Bruce sighed. At least they all had some variation of meat for Clint to eat, now that he was in wolf form. It had been discovered that while Bucky could eat whatever he wanted in either form, Clint could only eat meat in his wolf form. No one really knew why, but it was determined that it must have been because of the super soldier serum that made Bucky able to tolerate the other foods.

“Chicken parmesan, so that way we don’t have to worry about making sure we have plan pork for Clint,” Bruce decided. Tony and Bucky ‘whined’ in disagreement with the choice but didn’t argue it. It was then that they heard some sort of shuffling from down the hall. They all paused and looked as slowly, Clint’s furry butt appeared. Then his gut. Then his chest. And finally, his head with a blanket gripped tightly in his mouth. Bucky snorted at the sight.

“What help?” he wondered. Clint’s eyes flicked to Bucky with an angry gaze but when Bucky went to get up and help, Clint growled. Bucky sighed and sat back down. The four watched as Clint dragged not just one blanket like they had all thought, but at least three blankets into the living room. He tugged one blanket free and shoved it into the space that Clint had scoped out earlier. Jumping in after it, Clint situated it how he wanted. Then he came back out and grabbed another before doing it all over again.

“I’m gonna have to buy new sheets soon, ain’t I,” Tony grumbled as Clint grabbed at the last blanket and set that up to mostly block out everyone’s view of the ‘den’ he had made.

“How can he fit in there?” Steve questioned, staring at the small hole. Tony sighed.

“It opens up more in the back, so it probably actually feels like a good place. Small entry way, big hidden cavity. A nice place for a den. How he knew about it, I don’t know,” Tony admitted before sighing and putting the heel of his hand against his forehead. “What am I saying? It’s Clint.”

Bucky got up and headed over to the newly created den. When he got a bit too close, everyone heard Clint’s growl from inside. Rolling his eyes, Bucky shed his clothes before he shifted and moved his way closer, nosing his head over the blanket. Clint just glared at him from inside. _“I’m sorry.”_

_“Forget it. Just... I wanna be left alone,”_ Clint whimpered, turning his head away from Bucky. Bucky whined in confusion without saying a word. Clint huffed. _“I don’t know. I just don’t really like you there. Just, please.”_

_“Okay. I’ll just wait out here,”_ Bucky chuffed before backing his head out and sitting on his haunches outside the den. Suddenly a blanket was draped over him. He twisted to look up and noticed Steve was standing there. In his hands was also some sort of pillow like thing. Curious, Bucky shifted back, making sure the blanket covered a lot of him. “What?”

“Figured you wouldn’t wanna leave him alone a lot so,” Steve started before dropping the pillow thing onto the ground. Bucky looked at it before scowling.

“A dog bed?”

“Top of the line dog bed,” Tony called. Bucky turned to see that the genius was perched on the armrest of the furthest living room chair. “Got it as a joke but... There ain’t gonna be room for a mattress there and I really don’t want wolf marks all in one, so, a dog bed.”

“Fuck you,” Bucky snorted with a soft smile, looking back down to the bed. Then he turned back to Tony who looked slightly hurt. “Thanks.”

Tony perked up in surprise. “What?”

“Thanks. While it’s a bit insulting to have a damn dog bed, it’s nice to be able to sleep on something other than the tile,” Bucky admitted with a nod before shifting and heading onto the bed. Like an actual dog, Bucky walked all around the bed, trying to get the padding to shift into the right places before flopping down. Steve chuckled, picking up the blanket that Bucky had lost in the movement and placed it back on him. Bucky chuffed a happy noise before slowly drifting off. Smartly, no one was going to question Bucky’s need to do the shifting of the bed’s stuffing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my goodness, getting to the end here. To be more specific, only TWO more chapters left. Wow....
> 
> Darius has backtracked on his potty record. Most of this week he hadn't even mentioned he had to go and he also sat in it long enough for it to dry on his skin before we notice/he mentions it. UGH! Told him tomorrow I'm not gonna put him in a diaper. He can wander around in pants (PJs). Gonna be a lot of cleaning for me afterwards. But if it gets it beaten into his head, it will be worth it. Just need to do more laundry for a while. And pack some extra shorts for our upcoming vacation. Which is in like 12 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you can't tell, I can hardly wait, lol. Baby Jason is giving his parents some issues because he is giving them a hard time on eating solid foods. Actually, I should phrase that a bit better. If it is baby food like cereal bars, banana wheels, puffs, yogurt drops and the like. But give him a French fry from our plates and he'll munch on that. Otherwise, he's doing good. Just being a normal baby.


	24. Wolf Labor Traits

CHAPTER 24 - Wolf Labor Traits

Four days after Clint created his den, the doctors all tried to coax him out for a check up. But, no matter what anyone did or said, they couldn’t get Clint to leave. He told Bucky that he wanted to, but instinct was telling him to stay in the den. Finally, Rook decided that for the next few weeks, they wouldn’t be able to do any tests or checks. The wolf side of Clint wasn’t going to allow it, at all. Bucky stayed vigil outside of the den and was forced to send meat through the small hole and down to Clint in order to get the archer to eat something. It was a trying experience for everyone.

As the days went by, it became sort of a routine. Bucky had even taken to eating raw meat over actual cooked meals. But he made sure most of his share went inside to his pregnant mate. Clint never once complained. Mostly, everyone left the duo alone. But a lot of the time, Steve hung out in the room, drawing or reading. Bruce was next to follow and then Tony. Cho, Rook and West all decided that FRIDAY could call them if there was any mention of things going wrong.

Natasha was first to return back to the tower, closing in on two weeks after leaving. Sam was only a day behind her. Wanda and Vision called to extend their ‘vacation’ in Wakanda and Rhodey had to stay in Washington to keep everyone safe. At her return, Natasha’s first mission was to find her friend.

“Where’s Clint?” she finally caved after spending a good few hours looking for the archer. Steve, who had been in the middle of drawing an image of Bucky, sleeping in front of his mate’s den, pointed. She looked to see Bucky. “That’s not-”

“Clint’s behind him. In, a guess what could be considered a blanket fort,” Steve interrupted. Natasha frowned and plopped down on the seat by Steve’s feet. Steve went to move but instead found himself a bit tangled with Natasha when she swung her feet over to push them under his ass. The blush that came over him was one that Natasha would never forget.

“Why is he hiding away?” she pondered, not even mentioning Steve’s reaction to her feet.

“He’s made a den,” the Captain croaked. Natasha raised an eyebrow, glancing over to him and then back to the den. “Typical wolf behavior so, we’ve just been dealing with it.”

“Hmm,” she hummed before settling in even more. Her toes twitched under Steve and the red that the Captain turned was not a color Natasha thought a person could make. She just smirked. “Problem there?”

“Nope?” Steve squeaked, forcing himself to go back to his drawing. Natasha chuckled but shifted herself to relax a bit more. She ‘drifted’ off to ‘sleep’ in the relaxing tones of Steve’s charcoal moving about the page. After an hour or so, Bucky perked up and looked at the two. Steve looked over and frowned as he noticed Bucky’s eyes shinning with mirth. “Laugh it up.”

Bucky let out a small woof before laying back down. Bruce came in then.

“Tony ordered some Chinese, so,” the doc said, entering the room. Bucky perked up again before shifting. “What would you and Clint want?”

There was a soft bark from in the den which had Natasha sitting up in surprise. Yeah, Steve had told her that Clint was there but she hadn’t actually expected it nor fully believed it. Bucky paused for a moment. “Really?” Another bark and a quick growl. “Fine... He wants turkey, and not ground. Right off the bone.”

“Yuck,” Tony called, entering the room. “Good thing it’s close to November.”

“Whole turkeys are on sale all year round. You just see more of them around Thanksgiving,” Bruce mentioned before heading to the kitchen. A turkey had been bought a few days prior so it should have been fully thawed out at this point. And too Clint’s luck. It was. Still a bit cold, but they had learned that Clint didn’t care for it being even partially cooked anymore. Bruce brought it over. “Want me to split it?”

“Nah, I’ll give him the whole thing. Chinese actually sounds pretty good right now,” Bucky replied, taking the turkey and turning to fit it into the hole without enlarging it. Clint hadn’t liked that the first time Bucky had messed with it and they both tried hard to keep it steady.

“Is he going to be able to eat that on his own?” Natasha wondered, pulling her feet out from under Steve and allowing him to finally move his own feet as well.

“He’s been doing pretty good so far,” Bruce admitted as Bucky shifted his blanket around to act a bit like a Roman toga. “Gotta feed himself and the five pups.”

“I thought you weren’t suppose to eat more during a pregnancy,” Natasha muttered.

“For women, that can be true. But wolves burn a lot of calories in the first place and he’s got five growing pups inside that need just as many calories,” Bruce pointed out.

The next day, Sam arrived with some home cooked meal from his mother. Like the night before, Bucky stayed human for this meal. For Clint’s dinner it ended up being a few salmons. Sam thought it was gross and Natasha waited for some sort of smell to come form it all. But nothing seemed to happen. After eating, the group retired to the living room. Bucky once again took up his vigil on the dog bed but he didn’t change over.

“Can we, like... Watch TV?” Sam wondered.

“If we mute it and watch with subtitles,” Bruce replied. Sam frowned. “The vibrations could cause an issue.”

“Ah,” Sam mumbled. “He been in there the whole time?”

“Yup,” Tony answered. Sam frowned.

“Uh... Where’s he going to the bathroom?” the air-man questioned. The group stilled.

_“Fuck off, Wilson,”_ Clint growled from inside the den. Bucky laughed and repeated it before turning to the den.

“Seriously though. What’s going on?” Bucky asked. Clint let out a snarl and a yap before going silent. Bucky furrowed his brow. “Uh... How?” Clint again replied with a yip and a woof. Bucky sighed. “Whatever man.”

“What did he say?” Tony inquired, now curious.

“He... He sneaks past me every two days or so to go to the bathroom,” Bucky said. Tony frowned. “He goes in the bathroom, but not in the tub.”

“Gross,” Tony mumbled, thinking now of an entire tub filled with piss and shit. Bucky snorted, knowing what Tony was picturing.

“We are tall enough to sit over the toilet, you know that, right?” Bucky pointed out in humor. Tony stuck his tongue out at the soldier.

“Information I did not need to know,” Sam muttered.

_“You asked, nitwit,”_ Clint barked. Bucky chuckled and repeated the saying. Sam just pouted.

“Onto a different subject, about when are the pups due?” Natasha wondered.

“Sometime next week. He’s just barely hitting the eight week mark and wolves aren’t like babies. If they come too early, they won’t survive,” Bruce informed. There was a low whine from inside the den that had Bucky wincing. “He okay?”

“Yeah, just upset him,” Bucky replied, turning a bit to look at the den. Bruce frowned.

“I’m sorry, it’s just the way it is. With the next few days, I’m gonna call Cho, Rook and West back, have them sleep in the tower. They are better prepared for something like this then I ever will be,” Bruce said. The others nodded.

“Can’t wait to be able to watch TV with the volume turned way up,” Tony bemoaned. Bruce sighed.

“Clint’s likely going to stay in that den for nearly a month or so,” Bruce mentioned.

_“Uh, I don’t think the pups are gonna be able to leave to go to the bathroom their selves... So, uh...”_ Clint whimpered. Bucky furrowed his brow, looking back to Clint in surprise before posing the question to Bruce. The scientist’s face turned beat red in an instant.

“Brucie?” Tony encouraged. Bruce whispered something so soft that even Steve, who was sitting next to Bruce, couldn’t hear him. “What was that?”

“The mother wolf eats it,” Bruce stated a little louder. Everyone stopped eating, dropping their forks down onto the table. Movement came from the den as Clint poked his head out.

_“I ain’t fucking doing that,”_ he growled. Bucky snorted and looked back at the archer.

“You might want to if you follow instinct,” the soldier retorted. Clint’s muzzle drew up into a snarl.

_“Fuck that,”_ he snipped and shifted to knock the blanket down onto the ground. _“I’m gonna fucking stay out here.”_

With that, Clint moved and plopped down onto Bucky’s bed. His stomach looked huge now. It was the first time anyone had seen the size of him. The group just stared but Clint ignored them, curling up on the bed in a protective manner. Bucky shifted in his seat, getting uncomfortable with the situation. His instincts were currently telling him to get Clint back into the safety of the den. Clint must have sensed it cause he looked up and snarled at him again, looking far more vicious than he ever had. Almost more vicious than Bucky when he tried to fight going to save Clint.

“You know what, I’m not gonna be able to eat a damn thing now,” Sam grumbled, grabbing his plate to go ready it for storage. Tony and Natasha hummed in agreement before doing the same. Steve looked down at his food with a torn expression. Unlike the three of them, he needed the energy from food and if he skipped this meal, he’d likely skip snacking later on due to the conversation. Mentally groaning, Steve slowly began eating his food again. Bucky turned back to look and sighed before joining the Captain. Steve gave him a thankful smile.

“Hey, what happened to the turkey bones from yesterday?” Natasha questioned, coming back into the room.

“Don’t answer that till I’m done eating,” Steve cried, looking to Clint, Bucky and Bruce. Bucky chuckled.

“Stevie, their just a good chew toy,” the soldier answered. Steve frowned before flipping his friend off. Even if the answer wasn’t as bad as he expected, he really didn’t want to know.

“Don’t you guys eat the marrow that’s inside?” Tony inquired. Steve threw down his fork before tossing his hands into the air.

“Fuck it! I’m done,” he shouted before grabbing his plate and getting up. Tony smirked.

“I got him to swear,” the genius proudly proclaimed. Bucky rolled his eyes.

“You do realize that Steve was the worst of all the Howling Commandos?” Bucky wondered. There was a faint ‘Bucky, don’t’ from the kitchen. Bucky snorted. “I think Sarah Rogers had to scrub his mouth clean nearly every other day as well.”

Steve returned with a dark glare. “I almost liked it when you didn’t remember that stuff.”

\----------

With Clint now out of the den, Bruce called the other doctors back and they set up a small area of the living room to be ready for when Clint starts to go into labor. Tony and Sam enjoyed looking up wolf facts and telling Clint about them just to rile him up. Most of the time, Clint didn’t rise to their bate, but... He really didn’t care for a lot of the things mentioned. Natasha and Steve took their time going out and getting baby items no one had thought to get before. Well, mostly pee pads. But, as a just in case, Steve also grabbed some diapers. It was three days later that Clint felt something sharp in his gut and whined. It was the middle of the night, so it was just Bucky and him in the living room. Bucky perked up, looking to Clint. The soldier sniffed quickly before shifting to human.

“FRIDAY, call Bruce, Cho, West and Rook. I think Clint’s starting,” he called out. Clint whimpered without saying a word. Bucky frowned, moving closer to pet Clint’s head a bit. A moment later, Clint let out a whine as a contraction hit again. Bruce appeared at that moment.

“God, FRIDAY, did Clint’s temperature drop in the past twenty four hours?” Bruce demanded.

“Indeed it did, Doctor Banner. Was I suppose to report that?” FRIDAY questioned. Considering wolves tend to run at a higher temperature, FRIDAY’s medical knowledge might not have realized that a drop down to 99 or 100 degrees would be the sign of labor. Bruce cussed at himself as Cho and Tony made it into the living room. West was only a second later with Steve and Sam just behind her. Rook and Natasha appeared together.

“How long ago did his temperature drop?” Rook demanded, moving to get closer to Clint. The archer couldn’t stop his snarl that said back away. Bucky gave Clint’s ear a sharp tug in order to get the archer’s human side to take over. Clint whimpered and shifted his head away so that he wasn’t watching anyone.

“Agent Barton’s temperature dropped at 1:53 yesterday morning,” FRIDAY mentioned. Rook sighed.

“Almost twenty four hours. Pushing the limit there,” Rook muttered to himself. Clint perked up in confusion as Rook gently placed a hand on Clint’s gut. Rook looked up, noting the archer staring at him. “All canines have three stages. Stage one has the drop in temperature, possibly slight contractions, and sometimes a loss of appetite.”

“He was eating normal all day,” Tony pointed out. Rook nodded.

“Some canines do,” he answered, looking everything over. “Okay, if we don’t get the ball rolling within the next hour or so, something is wrong.”

“Hour? I thought labor could be up to twenty four hours?” Sam called. West looked to him.

“In women, yes. Labor could be really fast or last hours and sometimes days. But you have to remember, your friend is mostly following wolf pregnancy. His labor is entirely different from a woman,” West stated, getting equipment ready just in case not all of the ones inside stayed as pups and tried to come out human. Clint whined, shifting his head to roughly land on Bucky’s lap. Bucky looked up to everyone in concern.

As they all waited, they began to sit down and watch. Rook and Bucky stayed close to Clint, watching over everything. Steve was the first to sit down. He sat in the armchair that was closest to the event. Sam went next, plopping himself down on the couch. Tony grumbled, pulling a kitchen chair to be beside Steve and get a better look at what was going on. Cho moved to sit on the couch as well as West sat in the other armchair close to the equipment that had been brought in. Bruce sat down on the other side of Sam, filling up the couch. Natasha sat last and she plopped herself down on the floor, straight across the room.

A few times during the waiting, Clint got up and positioned himself differently. Each time, looking forlornly at the den he had created. Bucky shifted himself to block off the entrance when he noticed it happening more and more. Rook gave him a pleased smile. It was best for everyone if Clint stayed visible the entire time. Clint whimpered and whined and every now and then twisted to look at his rear. Every couple of times, people could see that he wanted to lick himself there. Rook encouraged it but Clint totally didn’t want to. This whole thing was already fucked up enough as it was.

“FRIDAY, how are we doing on time?” Rook questioned.

“Nearing the 58 minute mark,” the AI intoned. Rook frowned, focusing on Clint again. Bucky leaned closer over Clint’s head.

“Come on,” he encouraged. Clint huffed.

_“Ain’t my fault.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter. And I can only pray I can post it on time. This coming Thursday, I will be traveling to Disney. While I will have internet and access to this computer, I may completely forget to post. If I do, sorry.
> 
> OMG! Have you ever tried typing in a chair with a kid hanging of the arm of the chair, hitting you and pushing you and basically shouting in your ear? If you haven't, YOU ARE SO LUCKY! Darius just won't stop. And when I tell him to he either replies, 'I'm sorry' or 'I want to sit with you.' There is no room in this chair! When I used to type on the couch there was room. But I shifted to a chair and now, no room. And if that wasn't enough. All potty training, thrown out the window and now joined in with CONSTANT LIES! He's almost worse than Loki! He is an Energizer Bunny of annoyance! Meanwhile, I'm tittering on a cliff of anxiety and anger. God, I wish I wasn't.
> 
> Baby Jason is currently dealing with teeth coming through and kind of gives his parents a hard time. He isn't crying to much now a days. But, he's sharing Darius's energy apparently as this kid could bounce in his bouncer for like ten minutes straight before stopping for a minute and then doing it again! (probably not that long but totally feels like it when all I want is silence) It's not as annoying as Darius and I totally enjoy that when I look at him, Baby Jason does this huge smile and if I walk up to him a certain way, he laughs at me. Or maybe laughs at what he knows I'm going to do. Probably laughing at me.


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **WARNING!!!!!!!!! SOME DESCRIPTION ON BIRTH AND MENTION OF STILLBIRTHS!**

CHAPTER 25 - Birth 

At nearly thirty seconds before hitting an hour, Rook noted a pup was starting to come through.

“Come on,” the man encouraged. Clint whined and pushed at the next contraction and with a sudden pop, the pup was born. Without even thinking about it, Clint twisted and began licking the pup, breaking the amniotic sac and the umbilical cord.

“Gross,” Sam grumbled at the sight. Rook smiled as Clint continued to lick the pup. It wasn’t just Sam who thought it had been gross. Tony, Natasha and Steve also made a face at the sight. Bruce shifted forward, curious. Meanwhile, Bucky only had eyes for the pup.

“Actually, this is perfectly normal. It is up to the mother to clean the pup up and encourage it to breath on it’s own,” Rook informed. As Clint shifted, moving the pup a little ways away, everyone noted that the fur was a cream color. A mix of Clint’s tan fur and Bucky’s white fur. Rook frowned at the pup. He could tell something was wrong. Clint whined, looking at Rook as the man reached forward a bit. “May I check?”

Clint nodded, beginning to focus on the next pup. Bucky looked down to Clint before figuring he should watch the pup. Rook gave a worried smile, removing the pup from Clint’s side and looking it over. As he looked, his face morphed into a deep frown. It was as he feared.

“Is something wrong?” Bucky wondered. Rook glanced to him before focusing again on the pup. He gently rubbed it’s chest as Clint perked up. His mate’s stress leaking through to him with a whiff of scent. Rook ignored the couple as he spent time checking on the pup. After a minute, he sighed deeply. Clint almost knew what Rook was going to say. He had seen the look before. While it never personally happened with him, his brother had lost a child before ‘she’ was fully born.

“I’m sorry,” Rook muttered, glancing up at the duo with heartbroken eyes. Bucky went pale. This couldn’t be happening. Clint whimpered, wishing this was a bad dream and not the real life nightmare it was turning out to be.

“What?” Tony cried, getting to his feet. Natasha joined him, surprised. West sighed, moving forward to take the limp body from Rook’s hands. Clint let out another woeful whine. Steve winced, looking away. Sam nearly looked like he was crying. Bruce headed over to join West, looking the pup over. Cho didn’t move. This wasn’t her expertise. “What happened?”

“The pup didn’t survive,” Bruce whispered, understanding what Rook hadn’t explained. Clint gave a grief stricken whine before going back to focus on the next pup. He had four more to deliver and he refused to let them stay too long and lose another. Ten minutes later, a second one popped out. Clint immediately went to lick the pup. It didn’t even twitch. Mentally, Clint panicked. Not again! Beside him, Bucky actually whined. Without asking permission, Rook grabbed the little one. Clint watched him as Rook started to try and coax it again.

“Dr. Rook?” Bucky begged after a moment. Rook sighed, placing the unmoving pup onto ground. Bucky was the one who whined this time. Clint’s eyes simply closed before he dropped his head onto Bucky’s lap. Absently, the soldier began petting him.

“No,” Natasha whispered. There was no way it could be possible. They had been living only a day ago. FRIDAY would have noticed something wrong, wouldn’t she?

“The pup must have died before the labor started,” Rook mumbled, not looking at anyone. West moved and grabbed the pup, leaving it with the unmoving sibling that Bruce was still checking over. Clint didn’t even look, focusing even harder on the next pup to come out. This one took 23 minutes to come out. Twenty three panicked filled moments. Rook again waited till Clint had cleaned the pup and this time got it breathing before checking on it. He gave a soft smile. “Alive.”

“Oh, thank fuck,” Sam called as Bucky nearly sagged in relief. He nearly reached for the little creature before something told him to focus on his mate. Rook placed the pup near Clint’s stomach. Clint gave the pup another lick before working on its’ sibling. He had two more to go. The fourth pup was only about two minutes behind. After doing the cleaning, and before Rook could even reach forward to check on it, the pup let out a little whimper of it’s own. Rook smiled. That was what he had been looking for this entire time. He glanced quickly at the other living pup. It still hadn’t whimpered or whined yet. Thankfully no one really noticed and he wasn’t willing to explain how bad that was.

“Can you tell the genders?” Steve wondered, leaning forward a bit, interested in what would make the little ones different.

“I would recommend we wait on that. Finding out a canines’ gender is much different than a baby,” Rook informed. Clint huffed, turning to focus on the two pups he had, continuing to lick them all over. Only the fourth one whined or yipped at the attention.

“Why is only one talking?” Cho questioned, finally noticing the difference between the two living pups. Rook turned to look at her. He had hoped that the couple would have had a bit more time before he had to break the news. “I assumed both would be responding the same way.”

Rook sighed deeply, glancing at the quiet pup. “The noisy pup is healthy and strong. The other one... Is rather weak.”

“What does that mean?” Bucky inquired, focusing hard on Rook. The man sighed again.

“We will have to monitor that pup closely but... In the wild, that pup wouldn’t survive. The mother wouldn’t even focus on it,” he informed. The room filled with gasps of shock. Clint whined, turning his attention more onto the quiet pup even as the stronger one, which had been pushed against his chest, twisted and found a nipple. The archer sharply inhaled in response, glancing quickly down at it with what could only seem like a betrayed look. Rook smiled. “Found a nipple?”

Clint turned his face and snarled lightly at him. Rook just chuckled and a few of the others did as well. Watching Clint taking care of his two living pups, most of them forgot that there was a fifth one still inside of Clint. Time passed much faster than anyone really realized as they watched Clint. Bucky ran his hands down Clint’s spine, smiling at _his_ pups. A little over two hours later or so, FRIDAY spoke up.

“After doing some research on canine births, I believe Agent Barton may be having an issue with his fifth pup,” FRIDAY intoned. The room froze.

“What?”

“The last delivery was at 3:04 am. It is currently 5:10 am,” the AI reported. Rook frowned, deeply before shifting to gently pat at Clint’s stomach. The archer tried not to shift at all as Rook examined him.

“Is something wrong?” Bucky asked. Rook looked up to him before turning and focusing on West.

“Bring the ultrasound equipment over here,” he called. West moved quickly, understanding this was going to be bad news. The duo set it up and Rook quickly began scanning everything. He hardly noticed the greenish black discharge of fluids and it soaked into the dog bed before anyone else saw it. Rook frowned. “It can fit... It’s not stuck...”

“Do you need anything?” Bruce wondered, moving closer, abandoning the already dead pups.

“Do you have any oxytocin? I didn’t even think to bring any with me,” the man grumbled. Bruce frowned.

“I’m not sure,” Bruce answered.

“We do not have any oxytocin in the facility,” FRIDAY reported before Bruce could even attempt to leave and check. Rook cursed, looking around at everything before cursing again.

“I’m guessing there are no safe drugs for a wolf in the tower,” Rook grumbled.

“Clint is allergic to most drugs,” Natasha pointed out, looking to Bruce.

“I haven’t really checked anything now that he’s wolf, but I really don’t want to test anything now,” Bruce added, sheepish. Rook cursed again. This was a bad situation. Clint was in danger if the pup wasn’t born. But after everything, he wasn’t sure it would be a good idea to let the others know.

“I really don’t want to do a cesarian section while he is awake,” Rook muttered. Clint looked to him, stunned. Did he seriously hear what he thought he heard?

_“A what?”_ the archer cried. Bruce snorted and without Bucky even repeating it, he spoke.__

_ _“A c-section. We’d be... We’ll cutting through your skin and muscles to get at the pup,” Bruce replied. Clint let out a highly distressed whine. Bruce sighed, figuring the archer was flashing back to all the medical changes he had been going through lately. “It’s for your and the pup’s safety. We need to get it to come out.”_ _

_ _Clint whimpered again before pointedly pushing his gut a bit. Rook sighed, placing a hand on Clint’s stomach. “You aren’t having contractions anymore. I doubt that would work.”_ _

_ _Clint huffed and attempted it again. No way in hell was he gonna get cut open again. He kept at it, determined and stubborn. With nothing more to do, Rook kept the ultrasound equipment following the pup along. After a few minutes, his eyebrow raised._ _

_ _“Interesting,” he muttered._ _

_ _“What?” Steve asked._ _

_ _“He restarted the contractions.” Twenty minutes later, the last pup was delivered. Rook took it away before Clint could do anything. The man quickly cleaned everything off the pup and tried to encourage it to breath. Nothing. After three minutes of trying, Rook sighed. “I’m sorry.”_ _

_ _The whole room went silent. Of the five pups only two survived and one was highly weak. There was a chance that only one pup would survive the entire process._ _

_ _\---------- **(Graphic descriptions of birth over)**_ _

_ _Six days after birth, everyone’s fear was confirmed. The weak pup passed away. Clint absolutely refused to turn human and Bucky hardly ever changed as they worked hard to keep their last child alive. While it was strong and seemed to be carrying on well, there was mention that it may pass due to the potential mixed parenthood. Rook and West traded off on their tests every other day. The pup seemed mostly to have wolf genes at the moment so no one was really sure how it would grow and how Bucky and Clint would have to care for it. A quick check showed that the living pup was a female._ _

_ _“What is she gonna be called?” Tony asked one day when Bucky dared to shift back to human. The soldier glanced at Clint who just gave him sad eyes. He drifted closer to Tony and placed a hand on Tony’s arm, almost pulling the genius away._ _

_ _“We aren’t planning on naming her until we are sure she’s out of the woods,” Bucky admitted, turning back to the genius. Tony went silent. He hadn’t thought of that. It hurt to hear and the genius seriously wanted to apologize. Bucky sighed, figuring that Tony felt guilty. “Look, we already had been attached to the idea of five... Now to only have one and a lot of people saying she might not survive long... We don’t wanna get our hopes up just yet.”_ _

_ _“No, I get it. I’m not joking or anything... Just wondered,” Tony answered, holding his hands up in defense. Bucky sighed deeply, running a hand over his face and through his hair._ _

_ _“I know. Just...” Bucky started before turning to look at Clint. With the pup being checked out by Rook, Clint was laying in the bed, completely subdued and rather depressed. “West, Cho and Bruce think he might be going through post postpartum depression. Naming her would make it worse at this point.”_ _

_ _Tony gave Bucky a sympathetic look. He had seen it happen to his mother when she lost her own child. No one knew that Maria had almost had a secondary child. And a little girl at that. So, Tony knew what it was like. He placed a hand on Bucky’s shoulder. “You gotta watch yourself too. Men have a high chance of depression when their... Significant other has postpartum. Never mind the fact that you lost them just like he did.”_ _

_ _“Bruce mentioned it once or twice. But, I don’t know what else to do. Clint and the pup need me,” Bucky bemoaned, dropping his head into his hands in distress. Tony sighed before shifting and pulling the soldier into a big hug._ _

_ _“I’ll tell the others. We can help as well,” he muttered into Bucky’s ear. Bucky let out a soft sob before nodding his head against Tony’s shoulder. “You guys aren’t alone in this.”_ _

_ _“Thanks,” Bucky mumbled into Tony’s shoulder before they pulled away from each other. For once, Bucky actually felt a lot better after talking with Tony. After the genius began to move Heaven and Hell for Clint and himself, Bucky was beginning to warm up to him. And likewise, now that Tony knew the extent of what Bucky had gone through in the past seventy or so years, he had worked on forgiving the soldier._ _

_ _Life in the tower settled down even further. Even still, no one was certain how long the pup would last. Blood work kept coming up completely weird. One couldn’t even do a parental test for Bucky or for Clint. There was just... Something wrong and no one could figure out what. It wasn’t until nearly six months after the birth that something terrifyingly strange happened._ _

_ __“Where’s the pup?”_ Clint cried, panicked. At six months, the pup was very active. She tended to stay closer to Clint and Bucky but often times they’d find her in the gym with Steve or running through the halls with Sam and Natasha. Tony spent a lot of his time making a tracker system that would stay on all three wolves no matter what form Clint and Bucky were in, and wasn’t painful when they shifted back and forth. And even though things seemed to be going fine, Clint refused to name her._ _

_ __“Likely with Steve,”_ Bucky mumbled, still half asleep. They had relocated themselves into Bucky’s floor after the pup began being able to wander around. Now though, she was old enough to go where ever. Much to Clint’s consternation. He had become a helicopter parent. Understandable given everything that had happened to them, but still. It was different. Clint growled at his mate before shifting._ _

_ _“FRIDAY, where’s my pup?” the archer asked._ _

_ _“My sensors indicate she is still in her room,” FRIDAY intoned. Bucky perked up a bit._ _

_ __“See, she’s fine.”_ Clint scowled._ _

_ _“I looked in her room. Where could she have gone?” Clint muttered, getting up and heading off to his daughter’s room once again. Concerned himself now, Bucky trotted off after him. Together the duo looked everywhere in the room. “FRIDAY, you sure she’s in here?”_ _

_ _“My sensors say that she is,” FRIDAY replied, getting a little hauty. Bucky shifted back to human._ _

_ _“Can you narrow it down a bit?” the soldier wondered, but before FRIDAY could reply, there was a cry. A cry that neither man had heard before. They froze. That didn’t sound like their daughter. But FRIDAY said she was in here. Slowly, Clint headed over to the closet where they heard the sound. He opened the door as he heard another cry. Clint frowned and suddenly his chest began hurting. It hadn’t hurt like this in nearly three months. But it was a sadly familiar pain. “What’s going on?”_ _

_ _“I don’t know,” Clint answered, moving deeper into the walk in closet. There in the back corner was a large collection of blankets and shirts and things. It was the nest/bed their daughter had made a few weeks ago. It was where she tended to sleep as getting on the bed was still difficult for her sometimes and Bucky had started refusing to spoil her. Clint would always pick her up. Another cry came from the bundle. Clint frowned and inched closer. Then he shifted a blanket and froze. “Call someone.”_ _

_ _“Who?” Bucky questioned, coming into the closet a bit more. Clint leaned down and grabbed the tiny figure he had found. “Clint?”_ _

_ _Slowly, Clint turned around and Bucky paled. In the archer’s arms was the equivalent to a newborn baby girl. The duo traded looks before leaving the closet as quickly as they could and headed off down to the medical floor. It was late enough in the day that someone had to be down there, especially considering it was a check up day for both Clint and the pup. FRIDAY must have sent out some sort of alert as Cho, West, Rook and Bruce were waiting. No one commented on the fact that Clint and Bucky were naked. Mostly everyone had gotten used to it in some shape or form._ _

_ _“What happened?” Cho wondered, staring at the bundle in Clint’s arms seconds before West raced forward to grab the child. This was her expertise._ _

_ _“I don’t know. Went to sleep and she was a wolf and then found her like that after we woke up,” Clint cried, moving to stand by West as the woman examined the infant._ _

_ _“How is that possible? She was a wolf,” Rook called, looking at the baby._ _

_ _“Yeah, and you’ve seen us changing back and forth, what’s to say she couldn’t?” Bucky growled. Rook winced at that._ _

_ _“But we saw no signs of it before,” Cho pondered. Bruce frowned, having been pouring over information since arriving. Then he couldn’t stop himself from gasping._ _

_ _“She changed on a human development track!” he cried. Everyone stopped to look at him. “A human takes almost nine months before they are ready to be born. A wolf only takes two to three. In the amount of time since her birth as a pup it’s been six months. Perfect time frame for a human to be born.”_ _

_ _“And I’d have to say that she is a little premature based on her size but still well enough to not worry,” West decided, handing the infant back over to Clint. She was slightly surprised to realize that Bruce may have been right. And she was even more surprised to think about the fact that the girl had grown in a human rate without what she was supposed to have gotten while in her mother’s womb._ _

_ _“So, what? She’s a shifter like us?” Clint wondered, stroking the little girl a bit like he would have done with his tongue as a wolf._ _

_ _“She must be,” Bruce confirmed. Clint huffed a small laugh before looking at Bucky. Well, things were certainly going to get interesting now. “We may have to run a few more blood tests to check everything out. With her now developed as a wolf and human, her genes may have settled.”_ _

_ _“Okay,” Clint agreed before the infant let out a horrible screech. Everyone in the room winced. That was going to be a new thing to deal with._ _

_ _“Sounds hungry,” West muttered. Clint frowned, looking down at the babe. No one had bought formula or anything for a human baby. And the change had been so sudden, Clint doubted they’d get any on time. West chuckled and moved closer. “Do you mind?”_ _

_ _“Huh, uh, no. Go ahead,” Clint mumbled. West chuckled again and shifted the little girl in Clint’s arms till she was level with his nipple. Clint frowned as West gently began nudging the nipple. “I haven’t been...”_ _

_ _“You’re body knows. I guarantee it,” West murmured. Clint sighed and watched closely as West encouraged the nipple to extend out a bit and then shift the baby so she could latch on. Everyone knew it worked when the archer gave a surprised gasp. “See. You’ll need to start pumping in case she doesn’t eat as much as she needs to. And in case she shifts back and forth between days.”_ _

_ _“Uh, okay,” Clint softly replied, focusing more on his daughter than what the doctor was saying. The others in the room chuckled a bit. Nearly a minute in, Clint shifted his stance a bit. He hadn’t really been human in a long time so his legs were a bit unsteady at the moment. This time it was Cho who encouraged him to move. There was thankfully a chair nearby and so she placed him in there._ _

_ _“FRIDAY said something was wro-” Tony cried, entering the room before pausing. He smiled at the sight of Clint breast feeding a small baby. Without anyone explaining what was going on, Tony knew that the baby was the pup. “Wow.”_ _

_ _A moment later, Sam, Steve and Natasha appeared. They all smiled at the sight of Clint breast feeding his little girl. While distracted with feeding, Bruce came over and began his blood draws. Clint just gave him a surprised and slightly angered look but otherwise didn’t seem affected. The scientist gave him a nod before turning and headed off to his labs._ _

_ _“Come, lets leave them be,” West encouraged, moving everyone but Bucky out of the room. Bucky moved to sit on the floor next to Clint, smiling at his mate. Clint glanced over at him._ _

_ _“Well, now we got even bigger problems,” Clint mentioned. Bucky laughed._ _

_ _“I think we knew that from the start.”_ _

_ _\---------_ _

_ _Two hours after waking to see their little girl was now human, Bruce came to find the entire group (outside of the other doctors) hanging out in the living room. The little girl was sleeping soundly across Clint’s chest and he had sprawled out on the couch, his head in Bucky’s lap (both men having been nice enough to grab pants but stayed shirtless). Bucky used his hand to rub circles on the little girl’s back. Steve sat on the armchair he had long taken as his own, and to his surprise, Natasha draped herself onto his lap. A new love seat was added to the mix of furniture and Sam had placed himself there. Tony was sitting in the second armchair._ _

_ _“Hey, Brucie,” Tony greeted, seeing his science bro. Everyone gave the man some sort of greeting. “Did ya find anything?”_ _

_ _“Uh... Kinda,” Bruce admitted. That got Clint to try and sit up a bit but Bucky held him down, not wanting to risk waking their daughter after they just got her to sleep._ _

_ _“What’s wrong?” Steve wondered. Bruce sighed._ _

_ _“It’s nothing wrong. But, her blood did clear up. She is a healthy mix of wolf and human, just like Clint and Bucky,” Bruce stated. Bucky frowned, looking back to him._ _

_ _“But?” Bruce winced a bit._ _

_ _“I’m not sure if this is gonna be considered bad news or not, but... She has the super soldier serum,” Bruce informed. The room paused._ _

_ _“What?” Tony cried before the room filled with shushing. He looked sheepish at the thankfully still sleeping little girl. Bruce sighed._ _

_ _“It seems, the super soldier serum can be passed down to children,” the scientist explained._ _

_ _“Uh, how is that bad news?” Tony asked._ _

_ _“Well, if anyone finds out...” Bruce started._ _

_ _“They’ll want to take Steve and Bucky for their sperm,” Natasha finished. Bruce nodded._ _

_ _“And possibly even myself, even though my serum is not like theirs,” Bruce admitted._ _

_ _“But, the good news is, she’s gonna survive, right?” Sam questioningly pointed out. Bruce smiled and nodded._ _

_ _“The serum will make her resilient to many diseases, human and wolf. I don’t know if it will act entirely like Bucky’s but it is there,” Bruce added. Bucky smiled, looking down at Clint. Clint smiled back before finally getting up, waking their daughter in the process. Everyone watched as Clint shifted to be closer to Bucky. They had decided on a few names before the pups were born and now that this was the only pup left, they knew the only name that worked._ _

_ _“Everyone, meet Margaret Sarah Barton-Barnes.”_ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we are done! As I said last week, I was going to be late. But I had a good reason. Yesterday, we had a reservation at the Coral Reef in EPCOT at Walt Disney World. Following that, I accidentally fell into a nap along side Darius. Then we went to Villains after Dark at the Magic Kingdom till like 2 in the morning. IT WAS AN AWESOME EVENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> 
> Surprisingly enough, Darius has been doing excellent! Was wonderful on the plane flight down. Hardly bothered anyone but hubby and me. Then, even at the hotel he's doing great. Isn't getting as upset easily as other times. Currently, we hadn't tired him out much so he's like being nutso all behind me and bothering hubby and I. Nothing as bad as at home, but still. Hubby and Darius also had a small accident with the ceiling fan. Darius was on top of hubby's shoulders and when he went to get Darius off, they had gotten too close to the fan. It smacked into Darius (unsure where exactly as my back was turned to them at the time) and a blade completely snapped off. Calling Disney's Services for a way to get it fixed was so impressive. They were far more worried about how Darius was doing than the actual damage to the room. In fact, they even did a wellness call this morning. I missed it, but still, the thoughtfulness is outstanding. Today we went to Star Wars land. Didn't actually do anything there. Bought a few toys (Sabacc and a puzzle cube). Hubby and I also tried Blue Milk and Green Milk. Hubby liked the blue, while I liked the green. Got a spiced hot chocolate. It was like 70 degrees so I never finished it, but it was good. Also, the soda is mostly packaged like a small bomb. Awesome! Hoping to get to the park early tomorrow to get tickets for one of the rides. If not, I can at least get something else done.


End file.
